April 3rd, 2012 by Adam Webmaster
On the surface, a web-site seems all about aesthetics. However, as any business owner involved in SEO and Social Media will be well aware, there’s a lot more to it than that, such as…
Colour is crucial
When considering how to use colour in your web design, there are three significant things to remember. The first is that the colour needs to be appropriate to the business you’re in, and the second is that colour directly affects a person’s mood. But of all the elements you want to get right, it’s readability. It’s fine to use a jet-black background with white writing, but make sure that you use a font that can be easily read; get it wrong and this contrast of colours could have your reader flicking over to a competitor’s site within seconds.
Font/typeface
Everyone loves a good font, don’t they? Well, the trouble is that everyone has a different idea of what a good font is, just the same as everyone loves a different kind of Social Media. The key thing to remember is that you can’t go too far wrong with a clear, easily readable font that makes gazing at the screen feel effortless.
Innovation is important
Got an idea for a new SEO web-site that sweeps from left to right as you scroll off-screen? Don’t be afraid to use it! Many web-sites scroll vertically, but research suggests that scrolling sideways works just as well. Live in Gloucester or Cheltenham? Then you’ll want to head over to All About and see what they have to offer.
Don’t make the reader’s life difficult
The job of all good design is to make for an enjoyable and practical experience. That experience is ruined when you forget to make your email address easy to spot, don’t include a phone number where applicable, or use SEO in such a way that it interrupts the reader’s viewing. Other things which may cause frustration for your reader are links that don’t work, and pages that take far too long to load up. While quality web design is critical to any web-sites success, it should never come at the cost of speed and efficiency.
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January 7th, 2011 by Adam Webmaster
It is certainly true that Cheltenham has more web designers than Gloucester, well that is the perception. Cheltenham is often seen as the mecca of design, style and buzz. At AS Design we take some small degree of pleasure competing with all these Cheltenham web design agencies as one of the leading Gloucester Web Design agencies. Our small team has the skills for Cheltenham web design, online-marketing, graphic design, social media and other related services.
Why choose us for your Cheltenham web design?
No 1 Reason
We are cost effective as our average hourly rate is less than comparable Cheltenham web design Agencies at the same standard and level of work. This means you can either get more for the same money or the same for less, either way it is a win – win situation.
No 2 Reason
Many Cheltenham web design agencies also have minimum charges for websites which can be thousands of pounds, this leaves many small businesses spending way more for a basic good website than warrants the results or going to cheaper Cheltenham web design agencies and not getting the same level expertise. At AS Design we cater for the small basic website as much as we do the larger corporate or e-commerce website. So we are good choice for all small businesses in Cheltenham.
No 3 Reason
Gloucester has more people, more homes and more businesses than Cheltenham and as web designers we often have to target all of Gloucestershire. This means we are skilled getting local results on-line for all of Gloucestershire and surrounding areas, rather than limited to Cheltenham.
So for Cheltenham web design we say check out the talent in Gloucester, cheaper just as good and highly motivated for all business.
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November 22nd, 2010 by Adam Webmaster
Hi all,
It is about time we blogged some more, it is true about getting so busy with client work we forget about spreading knowledge and keeping those interested in what we do informed, we shall try to do better in 2011!!
Well I am going to write about some web development that will eventually help us designers in easier styling and basic animation using CSS. There have been many articles written about whether flash in websites will die a death and CSS will take over. It amazes us that this conversation is even raging considering CSS3 is not supported in many browsers, and IE the most used browser still (change if it you have it please!!) does not support CSS, the IE 9 new broswer is better – but still building websites that are not supported with IE is dangerous to say the least.
Also flash animation provides a much better stable platform for brand animation in details CSS will never achieve, certainly not in the next 5 years. Being honest Apple should “get a grip” and support flash so certain bias developers who are “in bed” with apple stop condemning flash. Indeed android and windows based mobile technologies are supporting flash, so apple should stop there ring fencing it is a real bore.
We have to point out that we moved away from developing full flash websites several years ago as they are too bandwidth dependant, not great for SEO and generally were too interactive meaning the message of our client could be easily missed. We do however like some professional flash animation for top banners or areas where images are dominant as it really enhances a website done well.
Back to the subject!!
HTML 5 is supported in the new IE9 explorer and most other major browsers however there is still differing support for various elements of HTML5 which web developers need to understand so they do not leave web surfers or clients customers with a mess of a website.
Please view our table at the bottom of this post for a cross browser support table of HTML5!
My View of IE – Internet Explorer:
Those of us web developing for clients who`s target audience use mainly IE as their browser find the whole process annoying and frustrating. There will be a few posts about IE explorer and why people should dump it as a browser, but we are looking forward to IE 9 which is supposed to be more compliant and able to utilise CSS etc better than ever before. That along with a much faster browser in terms of flash and frames per second – so we shall certainly test drive IE 9 and provide a detailed report probably by Prash our technology blogger!!
Microsoft and Apple are certainly dominate Companies that influence the internet, how it is accessed and used as they both provide the platforms most people use, this gives them both an advantage when it comes to which browser people use. Many people with a lower degree of knowledge of such things accept what they are given with their new PC or Mac. This gives both Microsoft who like there own direction of browsing and Apple who want everything their own way to make life difficult. I for one dont like either Companies, although when it comes to browsers Microsoft are the worse and no one should use it. Apple is a Company you either love or hate, My opinion is the latter 
CSS3 is flash Dead?
There is a buzz right now that CSS3 will allow animation of sorts and will compete against flash (oh I can hear the Apple execs rubbing their designer gloves) to the point that some think flash days are numbered. However the fact is many browsers still do not support CSS3 certainly not those versions that need updating to which there are many! Also CSS3 will provide limited animation which will be great for certain applications (possibly) but could not replace flash animation and what is achieved by those with experience. Such as Yugo for us at AS Design.
I do agree that pure flash websites days are numbered with many of us web developers moving away from that type of website. Using flash animation in place of images to enhance a website will provide a positive enhancement, in our view, but full flash websites are resource intensive, more complicated to use and just not necessary.
So our view is that CSS3 will never replace what flash can do, Adobe can rest easy and Apple should support flash
Well that’s about it I hope this blog post has provided some useful info, please see the table below to show what browsers support what. It should be simple enough to understand, Y = yes and N = no but I am sure that was obvious 
As you will notice there is a lot of N for IE!!
Thanks
Adam
| MAC: Chrome | MAC: Chrome | MAC: FIREFOX | MAC: Opera | MAC: Safari | MAC: Safari | WIN: Chrome | WIN: Chrome | WIN: Chrome | WIN: Firefox | WIN: Firefox | WIN: Opera | WIN: Safari | WIN: IE | WIN: IE | WIN: IE | WIN: IE |
| HTML5 FORM ATTRIBUTES | 5 | 6 | 3.6 | 10.6 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 3.6 | 4.02 | 10.6 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 |
| Autocomplete | N | N | N | Y | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | Y | N | N | N | N | N |
| Autofocus | Y | Y | N | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | N | Y | Y | Y | N | N | N | N |
| List | N | N | N | Y | Y | N | N | N | N | N | N | Y | Y | N | N | N | N |
| Placeholder | Y | Y | N | N | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | N | Y | N | Y | N | N | N | N |
| Min | Y | Y | N | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | N | N | Y | Y | N | N | N | N |
| Max | Y | Y | N | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | N | N | Y | Y | N | N | N | N |
| Multiple | Y | Y | Y | N | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | N | Y | N | N | N | N |
| Pattern | Y | Y | N | Y | Y | N | Y | Y | Y | N | N | Y | Y | N | N | N | N |
| Required | Y | Y | N | Y | Y | N | Y | Y | Y | N | N | Y | Y | N | N | N | N |
| Form: Step | Y | Y | N | Y | Y | N | Y | Y | Y | N | N | Y | Y | N | N | N | N |
| HTML5 FORM INPUTS | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Search | Y | Y | N | N | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | N | Y | N | Y | N | N | N | N |
| Phone | Y | Y | N | N | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | N | Y | N | Y | N | N | N | N |
| URL | Y | Y | N | Y | Y | N | Y | Y | Y | N | N | Y | Y | N | N | N | N |
| Email | Y | Y | N | Y | Y | N | Y | Y | Y | N | N | Y | Y | N | N | N | N |
| DateTime | N | N | N | Y | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | Y | N | N | N | N | N |
| Date | N | N | N | Y | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | Y | N | N | N | N | N |
| Month | N | N | N | Y | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | Y | N | N | N | N | N |
| Week | N | N | N | Y | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | Y | N | N | N | N | N |
| Time | N | N | N | Y | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | Y | N | N | N | N | N |
| LocalTime | N | N | N | Y | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | Y | N | N | N | N | N |
| Number | N | N | N | Y | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | Y | N | N | N | N | N |
| Range | Y | Y | N | Y | Y | N | Y | Y | Y | N | N | Y | Y | N | N | N | N |
| Colour | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N |
| HTML5 EMBEDDED | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Canvas | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | N | N | N | Y |
| Canvass Text | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | N | N | N | Y |
| Audio | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | N | N | N | Y |
| Video | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | N | N | N | Y |
| HTML5 AUDIO CODECS | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| ogg/vorbis | Y | Y | Y | Y | N | N | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | N | N | N | N | N |
| mp3 | Y | Y | N | N | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | N | N | N | Y | N | N | N | Y |
| wav | N | N | Y | Y | Y | Y | N | N | N | Y | Y | Y | Y | N | N | N | N |
| AAC | Y | Y | N | N | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | N | N | N | Y | N | N | N | Y |
| HTML5 VIDEO CODECS | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| ogg/theora | Y | Y | Y | Y | N | N | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | N | N | N | N | N |
| H.264 | Y | Y | N | N | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | N | N | N | Y | N | N | N | Y |
| WebM | N | Y | N | Y | N | N | N | Y | Y | N | Y | Y | N | N | N | N | N |
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October 22nd, 2010 by John
Hi John here one of the Graphic Designers who works for AS Design,
I thought it was about time I blogged!! We always leave Adam to it as we concentrate on clients design work.
I thought a good blog to start with is why I think web design and looks matter!
I feel it is very important to have a good design for your website, after all it is the hub of your online business; it is the virtual representation of your company whether your company exists physically or not. When you are doing business online, people cannot see you physically like how they could if they were dealing with an offline company.
Hence, people do judge you by your covers.
This is where a good design comes in. Imagine if you are running an offline company. Would you allow your salespersons to be dressed in scruffy clothes when they are dealing with your customers? By making your staff presentable, you are telling your customers that you do care about quality. This works simply because first impressions matter. Similarly, the same case is with your website. If your website is put together shabbily and looks like a 5 minute “quick fix” that you have done from your home pc, you are literally telling your visitors that you are not professional and you do not care much for quality.
On the opposite, if you have a totally professional looking website layout, you are giving your visitors the perception that you have given meticulous attention to every detail and you care about professionalism. You are organized, focused and you really mean business.
On the other hand, you should also have anything related to your company well designed. From business cards to promotional brochures, every little bit matters. This is because as you grow your business, these items become the face of your business.
We understand it matters so when we do design work whether for a small business or a larger client with deeper pockets all our work portrays professionalism.
If you have any comments or would like my opinion on your website or other design work please use the comments below of course you can contact us!
Thanks
John
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September 23rd, 2010 by Adam Webmaster
Hi all,
Gloucester in Gloucestershire UK is a City with docks and is under going some major developments which is transforming the area. It has been surprising how many Gloucester business do not have a website, especially the smaller businesses like tradesmen and shops.
We have had a few marketing drives we have called Gloucester web design matters, and we have been successfully getting some Gloucester web designs completed, and Gloucester Companies online.
We have seen many of our clients getting on the first page of Google for relevant local search terms, it does take between 3-6 months in our experience which is very fast! This means our Gloucester web designs do very well and see a quick return on investment, in other words making our Gloucester clients money from their web design done by us.
One of our latest Gloucester web designs http://www.glosplumbers.co.uk
So if you want a Gloucester web design get in touch
See how our team at AS Design can make your Company money from being online.
Thanks for reading
Adam
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August 16th, 2010 by AS Web Design
Hi all,
Has been a great day for taking pictures and video clips for one of our clients in Cheltenham, we have been waiting for a great day and today was that day.
Just a quick blog about SEO and the realistic goals you should set for your website, there is nothing more frustrating that a potential client saying
“Another Company said they can get me on the first page of Google search for ****** ******** keywords within a month.”
Really?
In my experience in SEO which is pretty reasonable I would say the chances of a Company employing “white hat” ethical techniques to your website suddenly on the front page above all the other well established websites is very remote. The only way I can see this happening is either the competition is extremely weak for those keywords, they mean Google maps or pay per click advertising.
From our point of view at AS Design…..
We say that medium competitive marketplaces on-line take on average between 3-6 months to start showing on the first or second page of Google for your chosen keywords when done correctly & locally. Very highly competitive keyword and keyword phrases are probably better left alone, there are less competitive keyword phrases to go for. For example if the most popular keyword phrase shows 50,000 times a month in searching and the listings are dominated by aged aggressive SEO websites then your chance in beating them is very costly and time consuming, not impossible but expensive! You would be much better off finding a keyword phrase that gets say 3000 hits a month and the competition is a lot less.
Lets face it 100 clicks out of 3000 hits is much better than no clicks out of 50,000!
So you must understand where and how your website is going to tackle your marketplace.
Realistic goals, well you must look at a website as a medium to long term business activity, it is not a quick fix (of course pay per click can give quick results but still requires time and the right keyword density) nor a flash in the pan idea. The internet is HUGE business, it is where many people now search for services and products, it is a great way to get reviews and information. You need to carve out your Organisations online presence and maintain it for success. Look at 12 months to gauge your success not 5 mins!
I work closely with my clients at AS Design and if I think a client is not taking the internet seriously or has the wrong expectations I honestly and diplomatically correct
hope everyones mOnday has been good.
Thanks
Adam
Webmaster
http://www.gloswebsitedesign.co.uk
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July 19th, 2010 by AS Web Design
If you can be bothered reading the post please play the short video clip!
You only have to search online for web design and you will come across many solutions for building your own website, these solutions come in many different forms from those where you pick designs and add text to slightly more complicated software giving you a feeling of tailored web design. The prices range from a “one off” £99 to £20 a month plus. Sounds good doesn’t it when experienced web designers charge £500 – £3000 for a website?
Let us explore the financial side, for arguments sake lets say you decide on a monthly service costing £35 a month, in a year you have paid £420 for a basic do-it-yourself website. Yell.com charge around £600 a year for a 2-3 page basic website. So you now have your wesbite live, great exactly how are people going to find your website? Do you expect people to find your website when searching? Does your website have user friendly navigation, SEO (search engine optimisation), statistics to let you understand how your website is performing and is the design you have picked the same on many other websites who have used the same service?
The truth is the internet is HUGE business, with 80-90% of home owners searching for local services online, Yellow Pages & Thompson Directories dying a death, internet advertising over taking all other forms, 80% of home having access to high speed broadband and the young generations living on-line how can you even consider designing your own website? Those of us who have learned and keep ourselves up to date with the ever changing Google, Yahoo & Bing know how difficult it can be to get our clients towards the top ranking in these search engines. A website is an investment and you should get an expert to create and maintain your online presence.
A few questions you should consider, do you know what is involved in SEO? Do you know what the top keywords are for your industry and what your current keyword density is in your website content? How have you named your different pages and what navigation have decided upon and how will the search engines such as Google see this navigation? have you submitted a sitemap?
If you have no idea what I am talking about and your so called “cheap” build your own website software does not answer these questions then you are wasting your time and money.
Be smart get a web master to do it professionally.
Like us
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July 9th, 2010 by Adam Webmaster
We have the pleasure of a new client in cheltenham who is looking to really push thier online presence and move thier current website forward. We have to keep it under wraps for the time being but look forward to promoting it as a success.
Just a quick ramble about Cheltenham and web design it has to be noted that there is some pretty strong competition for web design, it is like Cheltenham is a magnet for web designers.
We are rated as one of the leading website design companies in Gloucester which is great however we feel we can offer soemthing to Cheltenham businesses as well.
Why?
Well we are affordable for a start with a basic website costing around £400-£500 and a monthly plan to help build it up and keep it up to date. Our content management websites start from £800. This makes us an alternative to those Companies who charge thousands in Cheltenham.
So you required an cheap or affordable web design and you are based in cheltenham? Try us one of the leading Gloucester web design companies.
Call me Adam Senior Designer 07909 442819
http://www.gloswebsitedesign.co.uk
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June 25th, 2010 by Adam Webmaster
You are a small local business who has built up a good reputation, you know you are good at what you do but enquiries have decreased over the last couple of years. Yellow pages, Thompson Directories and newspaper advertising just do not seem to generate the leads it used to.
You still get referrals which keep your business going, you are just confused as to why the phone does not ring quite as much, yet you are still spending good money advertising.
How can your business improve and change?
When investigated you realise a missing key marketing tool is a website, a good web design that can promote you locally and help keep your Company visible to customers. Other business owners you know keep mentioning the business they have gained from their websites, others who spent money on websites say it has not made much of a difference but at least customers can find your business on the internet.
Some startling statistics – over 80% of home owners search for local services online, finding some professional looking websites from local businesses and making an enquiry. How can you justify not having a website for your business to compete for your share of enquiries from customers searching online?
Yellow Pages, Thompson Directories, Local Newspapers & Free Newspapers are examples of advertising publications that you should NOT being spending much money on. You run the risk of not making back your investment, or at best making a little profit. When you advertise you should expect to get a good return.
Invest in a website; get a good web design and a Company that will work with you creating your online presence online. We have successfully helped our clients get their business online, creating the right web design that fits their business and gives potential clients confidence to make contact. Once you have a website on the internet you are ready to grab your share of online business.
Expectations – It is important that businesses who are going online for the first time realise that having a website designed and live on the internet will give you instant results! It takes time and skill from webmasters & web designers like us to fight off your competition and get you high up the search rankings. We would say a min of 6 months if required form the date a website goes live before any real results are seen from Organic searching – i.e. people search with Google, Bing or Yahoo (etc) and your Company is on the first page.
How to get faster results…
You can consider pay for click advertising online so you are at the top of the page when people search for what you sell or do. This can cost 10p a click to your website to £5 a click depending on how fierce the competition is to get to the top.
You can promote your website in all forms of advertising and even consider a leaflet campaign to boost your awareness promoting your website. Do Yell.com instead of yellow pages and investigate other website where you can advertise to gain enquiries.
The fact is if you provide local services and want enquiries your business needs a website now
www.gloswebsitedesign.co.uk & www.allaboutonline.co.uk to check out our websites
email us info@gloswebsitedesign.co.uk
Your online partner
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May 19th, 2010 by Adam Webmaster
Well i think there is nothing wrong in promoting success as we work very hard to provide our clients with affordable web design & hosting that works. Whilst it is true that you should invest in your website, keep the content fresh, spend money on online marketing & SEO techniques we take immense pride in awesome results from just a well done website.
Project: Acorn fencing (www.glosfencing.co.uk)
A small business located in Gloucester this fencing Company run by Gary has been trading for a good few years. Relying on word of mouth and traditional forms of advertising such as newspapers it has been a reasonable success. We provided an affordable website which costs less than a 6 week run in a local paper.
6 months after we built the website and made it live i had a quick meeting with Gary who said the work was coming in from the website and he is shocked by the amount of work he has gained!
8-9 months later – He can hardly cope with the work!!!
The moral of the story is very simple….
“Companies selling services or goods should invest in a website NOW”
Contact us now info@gloswebsitedesign.co.uk
visit: www.gloswebsitedesign.co.uk
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