Company Blog
Toile Solutions company blogLatest blog entries from staff at Bishops Stortford, Hertfordshire web design agency Toile Solutions, older items are archived.
Accommodation websites
10/08/2011been a bit quiet on the blog front last few weeks, there is a reason, weve been working hard!
Couple of major site launches and the development of our own internal products.
Late September will see the launch of SharpStay a low cost fully featured website system for bed and breakfast, self catering, villa owners and small hotels.
Using a template system (or custom design) the site will feature an easy to use, feature rich cms system allowing the site owners to easily:
• update the site themselves
• ...
Tags: Web Design Hertfordshire | Website Programming Read full blog entry ...
Keeping your website updated
19/07/2011We're all guilty of it, i'll do that tomorrow is a common phrase when it comes to updating the company website.
I'll hold my hand up and say "I do it too" its often the least priority in the daily work schedule.
But when you actually do the update, like the blog im doing now, it only takes a few minutes, in fact this one is taking less time than the time to drink the tea ive got here!
Keeping your website updated regularly will help keep returning visitors interested (theres always something new to catch up on), keep the search ...
Tags: Social Media Read full blog entry ...
Multiple website sitemaps - use the sitemap index
14/06/2011If you operate a large website producing sitemaps and submitting them to the likes of Google (via webmaster tools) is a great way to help get all your pages listed.
The XML sitemaps have a limit of 50,000 entries per file, so if you are working on a site (like the one we have been) with 43,000,000 pages, then you need lots of sitemaps.
Thankfully the sitemap index file is now here!
By using the sitemap index you can list your individual sitemaps in one file (up to 50,000) and just submit that one xml file to ...
Tags: Web Design Hertfordshire | Website Programming Read full blog entry ...
Local searching
24/05/2011When you are looking at the keywords for your website when performing seo, do you consider the localisation of them?
For example we have been doing some seo for a company recently that provides a service, ie they have to go and physically perform a service at the clients place of work, but their website was setup using generic terms.
This meant that although they were getting traffic, if it wasnt in the area they covered then the enquiries were not of use to them.
By adding in the area covered, counties / main towns not only do ...
Tags: Web Design Hertfordshire | Search Engine Optimisation Read full blog entry ...
Internet World - did you go?
11/05/2011Middle day of the Internet World show today at Earls Court, took the team down to London for a look round at the latest industry exhibition.
This year it seemed to offer more, there were lots of companies offering the same things, managed servers, hosting etc, but lots more smaller companies offering more niche products (although some we could easily build ourselves if needed!).
The magician on the red stand was as entertaining as ever (he's really good, pay a visit!) video seemed to be making more of an impact this year, weve been looking ...
Tags: Web Design Hertfordshire | Managed Servers Read full blog entry ...
Using Twitter for site and product promotion
13/04/2011Are you using twitter for your website / product promotion?
Ive not been that big a fan of twitter, still prefer emails myself to keep in touch, but the more you use it the more benefits you can see.
As a mass talk to your contacts tool its really easy, quick due to the limit on characters and you often get instant(ish) responses back.
By embedding the twitter rss feed into your web pages, you can then keep your website looking a bit more fresh and up to date as well.
The only word of caution I would employ is how ...
Tags: Search Engine Optimisation | Social Media Read full blog entry ...
Internet World Coming Up
16/03/2011Internet world is coming up at Earls Court in a few weeks, are you going?
Our industry exhibition can be similar to some, but if you look year on year at the different trends and products on offer, you can see new emerging markets.
That is what we look for when we go there, sure theres the great magician just inside the door as always on the "red" stand, very entertaining draws in a crowd, but sometimes its the smaller companies who are providing the new services ahead of time.
IPTV, advances in live 3d rendering and others ...
Tags: Web Design Hertfordshire | Website Programming Read full blog entry ...
Email marketing have you tried it?
09/02/2011Email marketing done correctly can be a very cost effective way of marketing.
Not only on that initial send out, but by using the tracking of click throughs you can see who is looking at what products and services and use that information in follow up campaigns.
Unlike a postal campaign email marketing is real-time and provides feedback, something you cannot do with a mailshot unless you ring up every one and ask them what they looked at, did they read it etc.
Email marketing provides detailed feedback: -
• Who ...
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Planning your year ahead online
06/01/2011The new year sales are in full swing, hope your business was ready for them.
Planning your year ahead online can bring big rewards, getting your seasonal items ready ahead of time, building up the search engine positioning in advance of when people will start searching is all part of your online marketing strategy.
Making sure you can pre-load the special offers and christmas items ahead of time, will make your life easier and less stressful.
Now is the time to sit down and plan the year out, once you have this year done, next ...
Tags: Search Engine Optimisation Read full blog entry ...
Happy New Year
01/01/20112011 is here!
Happy new year to existing and future clients.
Hoping the economy picks up and your online marketing takes off.
Big plans here for this year, will be rolling out new services and offerings as the year goes ...
Tags: Website Programming Read full blog entry ...
Xmas day!!!
25/12/2010Merry Xmas...
Whose looking after your hosting today, making sure its running as it should?
Our team are keeping things running smooth as silk.
Im not the only one working ...
Tags: Hosting Servers | Managed Servers Read full blog entry ...
Im here too!
25/12/2010I'm working too, no let up in service from us over the Xmas period!
Merry ...
Tags: Managed Servers Read full blog entry ...
Xmas shopping online
13/12/2010Its the time of year the ecom sites take a hammering...
Last minute shopping (or as late as we dare leave it before the delivery wont make it).
Most of the big retailers i've been using are runnign fine, one a little sluggish, but still usable.
How is your site going? Is it coping with the extra traffic this time of year brings?
Loving the way the bigger retailers are very promintently displaying the last order date for guaranteed delivery, very enticing to dive in and make the ...
Tags: Hosting Servers Read full blog entry ...
What Server Is Powering Your Application Online?
12/11/2010Web hosting companies are ten a penny these days with new ones springing up all the time and design agencies just reselling someone else's services, which is fine to a point, if you have a small brochure style site you are unlikely to encounter many problems.
But if you have a large online application, do you really know what servers your website is running on? Who is running the server infrastructure? What security measures do they take and how backups are done (if you are thinking now that you should check to see if your site is actually ...
Tags: Hosting Servers | Managed Servers | Small Business Server | Dedicated Servers Read full blog entry ...
Put Some Human Emotion Into Your Website
27/10/2010Question: What Do You Want From Your Audience?
Answer: A Reaction?
Whether you are looking for your audience to buy your product, sign up to your newsletter or enquire about your services you want them to react - right?
There is nothing like getting a reaction than to stir up some human emotion.
Example of the human reactions your website would generate could include pain, love, laughter or compassion. An obvious industry to look at would be the ...
Tags: Web Design Hertfordshire | Social Media Read full blog entry ...
Is Your Website Ready For The Christmas Period?
22/10/2010It may only be mid-October but you need to plan ahead!
Is your website ready for the Christmas shopping period?
Have you left it too late to maximise this year's online shopping period?
By now as a retailer you should have your Christmas products all entered and sitting in your e-commerce system, ready to launch now or a little closer to the big day.
If you have your products online already then you will be starting to enjoy the SEO benefits gained through early listings on Google, Bing etc, it takes time for pages ...
Tags: Web Design Hertfordshire | Hosting Servers | Search Engine Optimisation Read full blog entry ...
Making Your Website Content Unique
18/10/2010Making your website stand out from the crowd is something we specialise in.
Anyone can knock together some pages, programmers can build the content and you can get stock imagery for the pages, but so can everyone else.
Google and the other search engines are looking for unique content. Writing good unique content for your website is a must, but why stop there? The imagery does not have to be the same as everyone else. Remember, you can get traffic from the image searches as well.
We've just completed a second ...
Tags: Web Design Hertfordshire | Social London Read full blog entry ...
Less Speed More Detail for Web Design
12/10/2010When planning out a website, it takes time, do it correctly the first time and it will pay off in the long term.
Too often we see clients who want to dive straight into designing the site, before they even know what sections/functionality/content the website will have. Until the content is decided upon the structure of the menu cannot be decided upon, and that will impact the layout as it could be a horizontal, vertical or both style menu system.
At Toile Solutions the detail is the first thing we will get right, once all the ...
Tags: Web Design Hertfordshire | Search Engine Optimisation | Marketing Advice Read full blog entry ...
Web Conversations In and Around London
04/10/2010Imagine you are having a conversation with a client...
What Questions Are Your Clients Asking?
How Are You Answering Those Questions?
Think About It - Does Your Client Understand Your Answer?
Are You Clearly Explaining What You Mean?
Does Your Client Get It?
Now apply the same question that your clients are asking to your website. Does your website clearly answer those questions?
The only difference between your client asking you a question and a client asking your website the ...
Tags: Web Design Hertfordshire | Social London Read full blog entry ...
SEO, Google Updates and Web Design
27/09/2010How many of you spend hours each week checking and re-checking your Google positions?
Quite a few I bet, I have been a self-confessed Google checker myself.
We've noticed a bit of a jump, drop, bounce trend in the Google updates recently, client sites climb a few places drop nearly twice as many and then re-appear in the listings higher than the first initial gain.
Is this a procedure Google are following now? I'm not sure, it doesn't appear to be the same with all sites, some are updating in the index quite regularly, ...
Tags: Web Design Hertfordshire | Search Engine Optimisation Read full blog entry ...
