Here at Acceler8 Media we like to become acquainted with our customers. Not on the grounds that we’re nosey or stalkers. We simply feel it gives us the knowledge we need to start an outline that suits our customers taste and additionally their businesses needs. As good website is about individual taste an it’s always easier to provide somethng for a customer once you know all the relevant information about them and their business. Try not to stress, that doesn’t mean we’ll be going over your business with a fine tooth comb! A chat on the phone or in person is typically enough to help us understand your requirements. We like to think of this is as the ‘discovery phase’. During this journey we can start to instill a vision of what you are looking to achieve and also manage the expectations of both parties, based on the requirements.

When we know about you and your Croston or other Lancashire based business and have assembled all the content and imagery we can proceed to initiate building the new website. The initial part of the Website Design in Croston is when we work out the structure/layout of the site, the type of functionality that is required and what the best design will be to make it as usable as could reasonably be expected by the client and their customers. In the event that the site needs to be future scalable, we will ensure that we use the correct platform to reach the clients end goal. We will likewise take a gander at the content that has been accumulated and recognize keywords for search engine optimisation from the outset.

Now the fun begins and we enter the ‘planning phase’. We take all that we’ve learnt and combine it to create the look and feel of the site. This will be shown to you at certain points and will change and advance under your guidance until you are content with design. Once everyone is happy we will end the planning phase to move into the ‘development phase’. This is the part when you website starts to become reality and you see your vision taking shape. This incorporates making the coded html pages that will be utilized within the content management system, to make layouts that will add pages to your site. When these are added to the CMS you will start to see the functionality develop to incorporate such things as moving images, contact forms, parallax designs, social media feeds and the sky is the limit from there.

Once we have built your website and every one of the pages are published with relevant content we enter the ‘testing phase’ to verify it works and is fully functional on any mobile device. Every one of our sites are approved to meet W3C guidelines to guarantee the best execution and that they perform well in relation to Google and other search engines. When we are satisfied that our work is complete we will arrange to sit down with you in Croston (or wherever else you maybe in Lancashire), and iron out any glitches or tweaks before setting your new website live. Job Done!

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The crux of keeping any business afloat is generating new leads and ultimately customers. Now matter how well established your business may be, there always tends to be a natural turnover of the customer base for a variety of factors. Even if you endeavour to keep everyone of your customers as your number one priority there are always factors outside your influence which mean that you lose customers.

At Acceler8 Media we tend to think of our customer base as a leaky bucket. As we deal with a large number of SME businesses there tends to be a natural loss due to external factors e.g. retirement, closing the business, cashflow problems etc…. All of these things are outside of our control and no matter how good the work is that we have done for these customers they will always end up leaving. As such, in order to at least maintain the customer base and ideally grow it we are always looking to engage new clients.

Social Media is one of the services we offer to businesses, but it is also a massively important source of new work for ourselves. It wouldn’t be fair for us to preach the benefits of Social Media to our clients if we didn’t use it as a key resource in our own development. We have a number of followers on Twitter and they are made up of genuine businesses and networking opportunities. We focus on organically attracting business followers in and around Lancashire. Because of this it is fair to say that we probably generate at least one direct message a week enquiring about our services purely from our Twitter activity. This is in addition to our Facebook referrals which seem to be generated as a matter of course through referral from our customers individual accounts.

However, I think it is fair to say that we have never really capitalised on the power of Linkedin and the massive potential it offers for networking and referrals. We have decided that is definitely something we need to improve over the coming months and have found an excellent infographic with some great tips on how to use Linkedin. We think a lot of the information is invaluable and hope that some of our avid blog readers will benefit as well.

Watch this space and we will share any good news we get via our new Linkedin campaign!

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What is responsive website design?

Responsive web designs are a system used to guarantee that a site shows up precisely on a mixture of distinct gadgets. As such, your site knows when it is being shown on a mobile phone or device (e.g. an iPhone, iPad or Android device) and consequently reverts automatically to touch friendly functionality.

Why We Use Responsive Web Design in Glorious Burnley, Lancashire?

There are two main reasons:

The people who use your site are visiting at different times from different devices, in different locations. For example if someone visits your site whilst they are sat at a bus stop in Burnley, chances are they will need web design which is mobile friendly. It makes sense that you can guarantee that your site looks its best and works perfectly, whilst being shown on all types of device, be it a PC, tablet or the latest smart phone. Google recently produced a report on the basic pattern of “multi-screen purchasing” and the significance of your site being viewed effectively on all screen sizes.

The main outcome was that Google will rank you higher! Google realises that near to 50% of the people who use their site are on mobile devices and mainly smart phones. It makes sense that these users would be hoping to see websites that are mobile friendly when trying to navigate the website. Thus it is to Google’s greatest advantage to downgrade ineffective an non-responsive websites and promote those which are easy to use.

Is my WordPress site responsive? How do I tell?

Straightforward, load it up on any smart phone or tablet device. Does it look simply like it does on a computer, but all squashed down and difficult to navigate? If this is the case then your site is not responsive, nor is it mobile friendly. However, if your site is showing up differently than the desktop form and is anything but difficult to explore on any type of touch screen, you have yourself a fully responsive site!

Another test is to use Chrome or Firefox and dragging the window to see if the website changes. When you resize the screen down to the width of a smart phone or tablet you ought to see your responsive site change over into the new responsive layout immediatley. Give it a go on this site and see for yourself.

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For every customer we speak to who is happy with the provider of their website, there is always another who is keen to recount their tales of woe. It never ceases to amaze me how many times we come across shockingly bad websites, produced by the same local businesses, still churning them out, week after week. Since day one at Acceler8 Media Web Design we have always maintained the quality of the work we produce and vowed never to resort to the levels of churn which litters the internet.

We understand that small businesses and tradesmen have budget constraints and we are more than capable of offering competitive solutions in this marketplace. However, just because your budget is limited doesn’t mean you have to have a poor website. Probably the main offenders for producing over priced and inferior quality work are directory companies. They have a large customer base which has been built up on the back of their now dying main product. In an attempt to try and revert the terminal decline of their businesses they are reliant on their salesforce to push these products onto their customers as an alternative to print. Unfortunately, all of their sites tend to b e developed in Asia, using templated designs and badly written, generic content.

In 2015 and beyond the first port of call for the majority of new or potential customers is your website. This is your shop window and the opportunity to showcase your skills and level of workmanship. If the user doesn’t like what they see, they will go straight back onto Google and look for one of your competitors. The one bonus of having a website with a directory company is that there is very little possibility of it being found via Google and portraying your business in a poor light.

OK. So you’ve bought into the fact that your website needs to look the part as well as perform on Google, but you are still not convinced that Acceler8 Media can offer you a cost effective solution compared to the local website, churn factory? To keep things simple I have sourced two websites for similar businesses in Lancashire as a direct comparison. Have a look and see which one you would choose:

Lancashire Landscaping

Tottington Landscaping

I’m hoping that you preferred Lancashire Landscaping, which has far more functionality and is aesthetically far superior? If so, you would probably be very surprised to know that it was actually £120 cheaper to build than the competitor site, with a management fee of half the price.

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