July 2014 News

In this issue of Website Builder news, July 2014:

  • Drag and Drop File Uploads
  • Product and Category Sorting
  • Search Engine Optimisation Tips - Get higher on google 
  • Clear your Cache
  • Professional Web Design Services
  • Better Broadband
  • Affiliate discounts
  • Start your own business - reseller options
  • Cool links/system links
  • Websites of the month

Drag and Drop File Uploads

We have been doing a lot more work with drag and drop file uploads. It is now much faster to add products or gallery photos by dragging mulitple images from your file explorer window. Images will be automatically sized, and you can make further changes to the titles, captions and prices as required.

You can also drag and drop files into the web FTP area, and into "additional images" for any given product or gallery item. Drag and drop functionality will speed up your work flow considerably. We hope you like it. 

Also, we are working on a new drag and drop editor, that will make it easier to use your mouse to layout the content on your pages. Currently you should use tables/columns to layout complex content, soon you will be able to manage that content with your mouse. 

Product and Category Sorting

We have combined the category sorting and product sorting into the main products search screen. We have made it visually clearer when you have hidden products. Drag and drop sorting is much faster than using the old drop down lists to control position of individual elements. Please note that as products can exist in multiple categories, you can sometimes get odd results, as the position of a product will attempt to disaply in the same order in both category lists. 

 

Search Engine Optimisation Tips

Want to get higher on google? Or even to be found on google? It's really pretty easy to be found and get on page 1 for a 3 word phrase.

If you want customers to find you when they search for "waterproof kids clothing" then you should make sure those words are in your

  • first paragraph,
  • page title,
  • page heading
  • SEO filename "waterproof-kids-clothing".

You should target one page per phrase, and a category is a page, so consider using "waterproof-kids-jackets" on the jackets page, and "waterproof-kids-overwalls" on another page.

You may like to consider the issue of "kids" versus "children" and work out which phrase is best for you, try mixing synonyms across pages. You should research what phrases your competitors use, and use google adwords tools to help you 

Note there is no SEO filename for home pages. A good keyword rich domain name will help the home page rank well. 

You can buy lots of domain names, but they should all redirect to your main website address. You can alternatively put different websites behind each web address, so long as they have unique content. 

Getting links from other websites to your own, also helps your rank. But avoid link farms, which pay negatively effect your page rank. 

We have a few directories connected to website builder, and you can get free links in the directories relevant to your geography or industry, just look in the SEO tab inside website builder. 

Avoid all tricks for SEO. The guidelines we promote are the same that google promotes. We just want to help searches find the content they want.

The finer battle for the very top positions between competitors is hard to win and the process can be expensive. The alternative approach is to just pay for Adwords. 

More SEO Tips here

Need one-on-one Website Builder Training?

If you require personalised training, please contact one of our consultants, who are based all over NZ. Many of our Auckland team can also provide over the phone training at a scheduled time. 

We would encourage all customers to get at least one hour of training at the early stages of building their website, and one more review prior to going live, just to give your website that professional critique, and quick tidy up of the rough bits.

Training topics include:

  • How to use website builder and shopping cart

  • How to design websites

  • How to crop and tidy up photos

  • How to optimise to get your website higher on google and other search engines

  • How to setup a facebook page, or other social media account

  • How to send newsletters

  • How to use any other feature we offer.

Book personalised training here

Clearing your Browser Cache and Publishing

Caching speeds up your computer, but it also causes confusion when viewing changes to your website.  Every web master needs to become familiar with this concept. Almost a third of all our support tickets relate to mis understandings about caching. We can't change the nature of the internet, we only educate.

With the introduction of the international CDN hosting service, it's important that we highlight a few issues with regards to browser and proxy caching. 

  • The importance of the publish button is even greater now. Once apon a time, product page and blog page updates might have published instantly, now you have to press the publish button to see changes.
  • If your site had errors, or was offline for a short period, you may need to press PUBLISH again to tell our CDN service to check for updates on your website. Publish will generally resolve most issues. 
  • People in different parts of the globe, may now see different versions of your content. The CDN will cache your website in different locations based on the time content was first accesses. Pressing Publish will ensure every one gets the latest version. 

Learn more about Clearing your browser cache

Professional Web Design Services and Training

If you require training or professional help getting started with your website, please review their portfolios, specials etc and contact a local consultant. We have authorised all our resellers and design consultants to engage with you directly, and bill you directly for their time.

You can see all the available consultants at the following link from all across NZ.

/webapps/d/21/347206/web-designers-specializing-in-our-cms

 

Better Broadband

We have teamed up with the awesome 2talk team to offer you some great broadband options. If you have become disgruntled with your current isp, now is the time to get a great bundled broadband offering.  

/webapps/l/21/347206/nz-broadband-providers

Receive a 20% discount off your web hosting, for life, by referring a friend 

Did you know that if you refer a friend to use our awesome website builder service, you get a 20% discount off your hosting? If you refer 5 friends, then you will essentially get your web hosting for free! Not only that, but your friends will also get their 2nd month web hosting absolutely free. That's a nice little encouragement for them to check our service out and gives us the opportunity to setup your discount. Both discounts apply for your  2nd and subsequent websites also. It doesn't matter if it is yours, a friend, family or a stranger. Discounts begin once both websites are live. Please make sure you or your friend communicates the referral at the earliest opportunity. 

More information about affiliates here

Reseller Options 

We have an awesome new offer for web designers and awesome business networkers. We can setup any web designer who is interested with all they need to get started as a web designer at no cost:

  • There are no setup fees, no contracts to sign.
  • You will earn $2+ on every domain name sold (based on RRP $19 per year). 
  • You will earn (20%-50%) commission on hosting 
  • You can manage all your customers content, domains, emails etc, easily from just 1 login.
  • We take care of all the billing arrangements, so no administrative hassle. 
If you know of anyone who might be interested, point them at our reseller page. We'll offer a $100 finders fee commission for any existing customer who finds us a new reseller who set's up 3+ live websites. Offer expires 28th Feb 2014.

More information on reselling here


Need Help! is at hand...

There are several places you can find answers to questions about how to build your website and add features (which, there are a lot of) and its free for you to look:

If you can't find the answer you need - then get professional help

Contact - Web Designers or lodge a Support ticket

In 99% of cases the answer to a problem is covered in one (or more) of these places. We always fix bugs fast, with all the users we have we get notified very fast of any real bug -  they are not common, so if you are having an issue operating the CMS consider some online training with us - you'll always take something away worth value. In all other cases we are happy to do anything you are having trouble doing yourself for a small fee starting from $20 for 10 minutes. 


Cool links

All those links and more at our new toolbox page: More Toolbox / Links


Websites of the month

Here's a selection of some of our recent Go Lives.  

And view more examples of websites powered by website builder


Please contact us for more information. 

Posted: Tue 15 Jul 2014

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