Font selection for the Web should be based on a generic font family to ensure an appropriate type style is rendered in any circumstances. Specific named fonts can then be declared in order of preference and tailored for specific platforms, but which to choose? This article compares the most common fonts for Windows, Mac and Unix family systems.
default: 100%(relative) =1em(relative– but causes a resizing bug in IE if used on the body) =16px(absolute– but IE can’t scale pixel font- sizes)
Q: Hi, I need some help with this. I am using Wordpress and I would like to get a dotted border around the different categories on the sidebar.
A: Apply the border style to the outer elements, the uo and ol, not to the li’s. The following will get you started.
#sidebar ul, #sidebar ul ol {
margin: 0;
padding: 0;
border: 2px dotted #ccc;
}
If you want the border only on the inner lists, try this instead:
#sidebar ul ul, #sidebar ul ol {
margin: 5px 0 0 10px;
border: 2px dotted #ccc;
}
Online Payment providers
http://www.electronic-payments.co.uk
Credit cards – www.worldpay.com , www.protx.com , Major Banks
Online Payment Facilities www.paypal.com , www.nochex.co.uk
Online auctions – www.ebay.co.uk
Accessibility
Getting Started: Making a Web Site Accessible
http://www.w3.org/WAI/gettingstarted/
RNIB Web accessibility at a glance
http://www.rnib.org.uk/xpedio/groups/public/documents/publicwebsite/public_webaccesscentre.hcsp
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0
W3C Recommendation 5-May-1999
http://www.w3.org/TR/WAI-WEBCONTENT/
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0
W3C Working Draft 11 March 2004
http://www.w3.org/TR/2004/WD-WCAG20-20040311/
Test your site:
http://bobby.watchfire.com/bobby/html/en/index.jsp
Legal Information
Distance Selling Regulations http://www.dti.gov.uk/ccp/consultpdf/distselcon04.pdf
http://www.hmso.gov.uk/si/si2000/20002334.htm
UK Electronic Communication Act (2000) www.uk-legislation.hmso.gov.uk/acts.htm
Data Protection Act www.dataprotection.gov.uk
Comparative Marketing Directive www.marketinglaw.co.uk/open.asp?A=173
www.dti.gov.uk/cii/ecommerce
www.eversheds80.com
Marketing your web site : Links There are many web sites which offer helpful information and tools to help you to build and maintain a web site. The majority of the links below are free and offer a starting point for the marketing of your web site. See how many searches are being made for various keywords or phrases.
www.overture.com/d/USm/adcenter/tools/index.jhtml
www.wordtracker.com
www.google.co.uk – visit ad-centre and select keyword tool
Establish which search engines to submit you web site to.
http://dmoz.org/add.html - an open directory which is free to submit to and also provides data to some of the leading search engines and directories.
www.altavista.co.uk – Basic submit is free
www.google.co.uk – basic submit through dmoz is free
www.hotbot.co.uk – visit http://www.hotbot.lycos.co.uk/submit.html
www.aol.co.uk – submission through Open Directory
http://submit.looksmart.co.uk/submit_homepage.asp?isp=yah – looksmart engine
www.netscape.co.uk
www.freeserve.co.uk
www.inktomi.com
There are a number of search engines available on the internet. These are only a small section of those available.
Search for directories and web sites that may be suitable for listing your business, eg. Try ‘Cornwall Directory UK’ in google to find relevant sources
Many sites offer reciprocal links, you could add a links page to your web site and offer reciprocal links – the more sites linking to you the more popular you are seen as by the search engines.
Generate business through links from Supplier web sites. Many manufacturers have list of retailers on their sites, or if you manufacture – list your retailers. Use the internet as a resource for learning, there are many online guides to building web sites and marketing your business online.
http://www.htmlhelp.com/ - code and articles on HTML programming
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9605.html - tips on building web sites
http://www.ukonlineforbusiness.co.uk
http://www.seoposition.com - tools to help optimise your web site for improved search engine listings
http://www.isitebuild.com/articles - articles on designing and building a web site including search engine ‘optimisation’.
www.clickz.com – marketing online – a guide to email marketing
www.searchenginewatch.com – search engine information
www.echoecho.com – keyword listings
www.overture.com – keyword searching
www.didit.com – search engine registrations
www.knowthis.com – General and Internet marketing site
www.bidbuddy.co.uk/images/ukser.jpg - how search engine results are passed around
www.searchengines.com – free guides to understanding the search sector
www.roxy.neutralize.com – tools to help you check your listings in search engines
www.sempo.org the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organisation
www.semlist.com marketing service buyers guide
http://sherpastore.com/store/page.cfm/1759
Directories Below is a list of directories, most found within Google.co.uk under cornwall directory uk.
I tend to recommend to initially go for the free links where available, and then to review whether they are working for you before you pay.
(statistics for your web site should be available through your hosting, these tell you your number of visitors, where they came from, where they went on your site, and lots of other interesting and vital information to help you market your site effectively)
www.north-cornwall.co.uk
www.cornwall-homepage.co.uk
www.cornwall.health-club.net/
www.cornwall-pages.co.uk/
www.chycor.co.uk
www.celticcornwall.com
www.cornwall-devon.com
www.go-cornwall.com
www.beautiful-cornwall.co.uk
www.uk-westcountry.co.uk
www.cornwallsearch.com
www.thisisthewestcountry.co.uk
www.artsroundcornwall.com
www.cornwall-calling.co.uk
www.ecornwall.com
www.falmouthtown.co.uk
www.netpz.co.uk
www.southernuk.com/
www.thisiscornwall.co.uk
www.cornwall-search.co.uk
www.cornish-links.co.uk
www.connexions.co.uk
www.cornwall-online.co.uk
www.cornwall.gov.uk/
www.cornwall-calling.co.uk
www.cornwallcam.co.uk
www.cornwall.net
www.cornwalltouristboard.co.uk
www.cornishlight.co.uk
www.cornwall-info.co.uk/
www.destination-cornwall.co.uk/
www.art-cornwall.co.uk/
www.cornishman.com
www.cornwallpictures.co.uk
www.gardensincornwall.co.uk
www.1-all.co.uk/
www.shimbo.co.uk/
http://www.st-ives.uk.com/
www.eatoutcornwall.com
This is good for a laugh. If you have ever wondered what a web server thinks about, go to this address
Manic Web Server.
Then add anything after the address and enter. Your goal is to get the “404 page not found” message. Be prepared to read awhile the server rambles on a bit.
Directories
This is a list of directories related to Cornwall. As you can see some of the directories are free and I wouldn’t hesitate to advertise on these! However, others cost money and I would research carefully whether it is worth the money advertising on these. For instance, the ‘This is Cornwall’ website probably gets tons of hits but then I would assume to link to the site would cost around £250 - this might sound a lot but is well worth the money.
Make sure you read the page on Site Submissions to ensure that you link to some very important sites first.
I am building a site which will be free to advertise on. see Cornwall Info.
Free To advertise
Lostwithiel Town. A page about Lostwithiel. Excellent site - came second in a recent competition.
Cornwall HomePage. 1. Directory Registration - Free of charge. Your company is added to our database along with your address, contact details and web link [if available]. Cornwall’s directory for Business….. etc (loads of Categories!).
Cornwall Pages. A network of pages across the country. Free to register. Advertising Solutions from as little as £0.05.
Cornwall Devon. Holidays in Cornwall and Devon reasons to visit. No deatils on linking or advertising on the site.
Go Cornwall. An online holiday guide. No information about advertising on the site.
UK West Country. Quality accommodation recently added to our UK-Westcountry web sites. Click on the photo to see the full page for each establishment, plus information on the area, what to do, what to see, and lots more. No price on advertising.
This is the West Country. Westcountry news, sport and info from This is the Westcountry: Newsquest’s south-west regional newspapers online… To get your company listed in this directory, call 01278 727952. Don’t worry if you can’t see a suitable category - we’ll add a new one for you! I presume it is free!
Cornwall Calling. Travel and Tourist Information. No information about advertising.
E Cornwall. Check this section to find suppliers of goods and services operating in Cornwall. Are we missing something?
If you know of a useful Cornwall information resource or supplier of goods/services that we haven’t covered, or just want to comment on this site, then please visit our Suggestions page.
Falmouth Town. The sites listed in this search engine all have some relevance to Falmouth and the surrounding area. If you have or know of a site that is not listed, please enter the details now by visiting the Falmouth Add a Site page.
Net PZ. Penzance information & resources. No information on advertising.
Southern UK. The premier internet directory serving the South. Our basic entry for businesses costs only £10.00 for 2 years and lists the name of your business with a link to your existing web site. If you wish to appear under more than one category (eg builders and plumbers) or in more than one section (eg Portsmouth and Southampton) it’s just £7.50 for each 2 year listing after the first.
Single listings for charities, churches and other non profit making entities are free within the business pages provided a link back to SouthernUK is placed and retained on the site.
Cornwall Search. Once your site has been submitted, it will appear in the index in a couple of days. Registering your site is absolutely free of charge.
Cornish Links. The Business Directory for Cornwall. We offer a free advertising link portal for Websites in, or immediately involved in, the promotion of Cornwall’s (UK) tourism, business and ancillary industries.
We offer the facility to upgrade your link to a Gold or Silver link at a very inexpensive cost.
We can now also offer a full page “Sponsors” advert, which includes a banner ad photo link from the relevant page to a full page ad on our site and onwards to your own web site. This advert page may include up to 5 photos (provided by you). The cost is only £50 per annum.
Cornish Light. Cornwall Holiday Guide Tourist Information with nice Pictures. No information about adding your site. Presume it is free!
Cornwall Info. Welcome to Cornwall Information, a site designed to give you information about the businesses in Cornwall, and what is happening in the county. Free or premier listing (£75).
Destination Cornwall. Cornwall’s Longest Established And Most Comprehensive On-line and Off-line Supply of Daily and Regular Information on Weather and What’s On. Plus - The most extensive free listing of information about resources in our area. Fast and comprehensive information from Cornwall for Cornwall. Free entries: A free entry can only include information which usually will not change i.e. Name of business, postal address, telephone number and brief description (up to 40 words). Basic Entry: £10 p.a. plus £5 for inclusion in any other sections of Destination Cornwall. Enhanced Basic Entry: £20 p.a. plus £5 for inclusion in any other sections of Destination Cornwall.
Art Cornwall. Art, artists, and Cornwall - three words that surely belong together! Not sure how to link to this site!
Cornwall Pictures. Pictures of Cornwall, tourist information and free full size high resolution desktop wallpaper, photos of castles, landscapes, seascapes. You should be able to link to this page. Although, I suspect they will want cross-linking.
Gardens In Cornwall. Welcome to a selection of Gardens that you can visit in Cornwall. This site is being developed as a forum for Cornwall’s Gardeners, Gardens and their visitors. Contributions are welcomed county-wide. Members can submit their own gardening related articles and web links, and post local gardening offers, wants and events in our forums, so please click here to register - it’s free!
1 All. Cornwall on the web - with over 1500 pages! Free to add your site.
Shimbo. Welcome to Cornwall in Focus. This comprehensive website explores the unique land of Cornwall in the far southwest of the United Kingdom. I would have thought you could add a site for free.
St Ives. Welcome to www.st-ives.uk.com your feature-rich guide to everything in and around St Ives. Obviously if you have something to do with St Ives, linking won’t be a problem.
Eat Out in Cornwall. This independent all Cornish website is an excellent point of reference for information on “Where to eat in Cornwall”. If you want to register on this site, contact them direct. Don’t know what the cost will be.
Costs Money
North Cornwall. Advertising Costs £25. Travel and tourism
businesses and accommodation in North Cornwall.
Chycor. A holiday links site. A standard advertisement costs £70 + vat per annum.
Beautiful Cornwall. Cornwall Tourist Information in Beautiful Pictures. For a full listing, with a description supplied by you, including up to six images supplied by you, and your price list, (prints as 2 or more pages of A4), and your own Enquiry Form, all with an indirect link back to your own website £280.
This is Cornwall. This is the website for Western Morning News and The Guardian. Probably costs money to link or advertise but I bet this gets a lot of hits!
Connexions. Cornish Connexions has helped visitors to Cornwall plan their holiday since 1996. Through providing listings of accommodation providers and attractions, as well as giving information about Cornwall and its culture, history and lifestyle we try to help you gain the most from your visit to Cornwall. To advertise on this site you need to contact them. I suspect it will cost money!
Cornwall Online. Welcome to the Cornwall Online Internet Magazine. Within our pages, you will find everything you need to plan your holidays in Cornwall. Cornwall Tourism Guide. Our pages have listing for all types accommodation in Cornwall, we have many Self Catering, Cottage, Hotel and Bed and Breakfast establishments for you to choose from, as well as Camping and Caravanning Holidays. Cornwall Accommodation. To find out more about promoting your business on Cornwall Online, please contact us on 01579 363345 or email. I suspect they will charge!
Cornwall Tourist Board. Welcome to VisitCornwall, the official Cornwall Tourist Board website, where you will find everything you need to plan your holidays in Cornwall. Cornwall is situated on the far south west tip of England and has a superb natural environment, its mild climate makes it an ideal holiday destination all year round for short breaks or longer stays. It is VisitCornwall aim to provide good value for money for its members, both through providing increased business and benefits that have a real financial impact. Membership prices are very competitive for the services that we provide compared with other tourism organisations starting at just £82.25 per year (£1.58 per week).
Other
Cornwall Health Club. This page contains a listing of most of the major health, sports and leisure clubs in Cornwall, UK. Probably a cross-linking service!
Cornwall County Council. Not sure if it is possible to link to this site!
Cornwall Cam. A web cam site of Cornwall. Not sure if it is possible to link to this site!
Cornishman. Cornwall Coast, your guide from north to south along the whole coastline. I am not sure if it is possible to link to this site!
As I have said before, I’ll say it again. Be careful with paying for some of these sites. One or two have been built with frames which are generally search engine unfriendly. Others make claims about being on the top spot… or something similar. Go careful. Do your research and don’t be afraid to ask. I am happy to help and will be happy to cross link generally.
Businesses need a website for a variety of reasons. The most obvious one to advertise your business. The internet is a large place and getting larger. In order for this advertising to be effective, you need to decide on a target audience. This could be geographic (Cornwall), demographic (young people) or it could be business to business. i.e. You make ball bearings that you want to sell to engineering establishments.
The targeting of your audience is an important question that needs to be answered when it comes to deciding how your site is promoted. For now let’s leave this until later.
So why have a website? If the first reason is advertising your business, the second could be to advertise your products or services or both. Next thing you might want to do is to sell your products.
Each reason is valid but the emphasis you wish to place on these needs have an impact on the content. For example:
Most sites will have as standard a home page, an about page and a contact page. However, there is much more a website can provide, tips or articles, help files, product details, information about your staff, management policies, sales policies, business availability, galleries, news and press releases and much more. You might like to provide a video for people to download or a colour chart if you’re selling paint, clothes etc.
Content can be wide and varied but the question should be answered after you decide what you want to do with your website.
Hosting
I’ll try to help answer some questions now by breaking down the jargon.
Firstly websites need two things to function; an address and a place to house the address. The address is sometimes known as the url and will often start with www.
The address is generally obtained via the company that houses your address. I will now start to call the address your website and the place to house the address your host (aka hosting)!
Hosting is done on a computer! And yes if you wanted you could run a website from your home computer - but it does take a lot of work and is not very simple - we would all be doing it if it was!!! So to host an address takes a computer that has to be managed correctly. Most hosting companies will also provide bonuses. e.g.
Multiple email addresses
Sub websites, e.g. rich.cregy.co.uk. rich is the sub address.
Databases
Applications for you to run as part of your website.
Suffice to say hosting is a very necessary part of having a website. Cregy offer hosting as part of their website design. And now we move onto the next topic.
Website Design
Some people will know what they want and some won’t have a clue. Colours, shapes, etc. one, two or three column, etc. However, creating the site is one thing, the site then has many aspects that need particular consideration. e.g. accessibility - your website has to be accessible to blind people. They will often use a screen reader to be able to ’see’ the contents of a website. Your site has to be built so that is ‘friendly’ to search engines such as Google! There are many things happening behind the scenes that you might not know about or effect the site design. If you want to know more, simply ask.
Site Promotion
This is possibly the most complicated part of website design. Why? There are so many experts and each one disagree on the most effective way to promote your site!
So why should you promote your site. Simply so people get to see it. If you visit www.google.co.uk and type in the word ‘Lostwithiel’ you will be presented with over a million options to click on. Most people will click through the first three pages and then try a different search for their answer. The key to site promotion is to get to the top three pages. However, getting there can be very hard and time consuming.
This is where the original question comes in. If you want simply to provide an online brochure that existing customers can view then why promote! You might decide that effective marketing can only be done through the yellow pages - good - then add your website address and leave the marketing to that. However, you might decide you want your site to be number one, if so then we have a long road ahead of us.
Earlier on I mentioned including articles and tips as pages. Why? Search engines love articles and tips etc. They like fresh and relevant content. A search engine works by sending out spiders (small programmes) that work there way through your site and check to see whether there is new content. If they find the site is not regularly updated they will visit your site less and less and you will find your site heading downwards in terms of where you rank. However, if they keep finding new content they will keep returning and consequently your site will rise in ranking! I wish it was this simple though! Because the content needs to be relevant and more than just adding a new product for sale! Hence why tips, articles, etc. are so important.
Two other factors are important in site promotion. Keywords and links into your site.
Keywords are words that people are using in searches. i.e. On visiting Google, there are a lot of people that are currently searching for the term ‘world cup’. (As I write this the world cup has just come to a conclusion). Armed with this knowledge if you have a world cup product we would ensure that this is well known and keywords submitted to promote this fact!
Links into your site are important but need to be relevant. Links into are those links coming from external sites. If you visit lostwithiel.org.uk and navigate to the directory you will see businesses listed with there website addresses. This is the sort of link you would want to encourage (particularly if you are a Lostwithiel business. The link is then seen as relevant as well).
Finally, there is also something called page optimisation. This means taking the content of a page and using its keywords to ensure the content of that page reflects the keywords. For example. If our keywords were world cup (I wouldn’t normally limit the keywords to two). We would start the page with the title “World Cup”. A title tag is something search engines look for in content and assume that it has an importance. In the opening paragraph we would ensure that we again mention the term world cup and then offer the service or product. Now when we come to link to this page instead of linking simply to Cregy Web Design, we would link to Cregy Web Design and the World Cup. We have now started to optimise the page effectively.
Our friendly search visits the external site and discovers a link to Cregy Web Design and the World Cup. It follows that link to our world cup page and sees that the title is - World Cup. It then notes that the article features the words world cup and that we are offering a create a world cup web page service. It concludes that the world cup is high on our agenda and adds the search term world cup cregy web design to its database.
Simple isn’t it!
Conclusion and Costs
So why have I written all the above? Simply to give you an idea of costs and to give you the information you will need to manage the costs. For example, hosting will cost £100 a year, however this can be more if you want an exceptional amount of content. A client of mine runs his family tree from his website which has over 10,000 entries and photos. This is a massive site and as such incurs additional charges.
Site promotion can cost from nothing to £2000 per annum! As part of a design package you will automatically be entered onto Google, Yahoo, MSN and Dmos. However, getting to the top three pages of these search engines takes a lot of work and hence the £2000! It really is your choice and needs to be made only when you know what you want your site to achieve for you.
Costs
Our standard web design and hosting package costs £370 per year or £30 per month. This includes hosting and site design and creation. Content will be added but updating the content will be the customers responsibility.
Our medium package allows the above to updated and includes extras such as galleries, forums, faq pages, etc. This costs £550 per year or £45 per month.
Our delux package includes online booking or an ecommerce shop and costs £950 per year or £75 per month.
All the above packages include submission to search engines but no additional promotion. Our site promotion charges are as follows:
Our starter package cost £30 per month. We will seek to update content for you monthly generally by adding articles or tips etc or content that you provide. Images can be added. We will also research link sites. The link sites researched will be free linking.
The next stage is difficult to gauge and we would recommend sitting down and talking through the options.
The options include:
Researching keywords.
Advertising through Google etc.
Link sites including sites that charge.
Optimising pages
This is where you need to head back to the original question. What do you want to use your site for? Promotion of your site is important and needs to be carefully considered. I have included the standard package so that you can start to get an understanding of what is needed. But in reality I would generally encourage you to consider spending an advertising budget and also to spend time in page optimisation.
Over to you.
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Mob: 07747 343637
Email: rich at cregy.co.uk