Pay Per Click (PPC) is a popular model of internet marketing where an advert is placed and each time that advert is clicked advertisers pay a small fee. One of the most popular forms of PPC is used for search engine advertising.

There is a great deal of research needed before launching a PPC campaign. This involves a thorough marketing health check which can provide an insight of the best way to organise your campaign. For example, knowing the most efficient key words (search terms) for your target market can ensure your ad spend is as cost effective as possible.

Targeted Objectives

PPC normally is based on advert groups which contain multiple versions of the same targeted objectives. The adverts mainly aim to bring potential leads to your website landing pages. The landing pages should be optimised for the targeted objectives. PPC campaigns can also include aims to establish phone calls or brand recognition.

Google Ads

The most popular PPC platform is Google Ads. This allows businesses to create adverts that appear on Googles Search results. Advertisers bid on key words and pay for each click that takes place. The following factors can affect how successful your PPC campaign will be:

• keyword relevance
• landing page quality
• quality score
• creativity

PPC is a great way to gain new customers and market your business. It can be the best advertising channel for you because clicks can start almost immediately. You will be in full control of how much you pay and target various demographics and set the time of day adverts appear.

Google Ads can appear on Google Search, Google Maps, YouTube, Google Shopping, Gmail and 3^rd party websites running Google Display Network.

Other PPC Campaigns

Other PPC campaigns can be setup on Microsoft’s search engine Bing, the ecommerce platform Amazon and social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

It is important to decide if PPC is a good idea for your business and if you can afford it. You will need to have a separate budget for paid advertising. Your budget will be determined by your audience, competition and the types of products or services that you want to sell.

50% of customers are more likely to buy something after clicking on a paid ad and 57 % of people don’t recognise paid ads when they see them.

The main reasons businesses start PPC campaigns include:

• It is measurable and trackable
• It provides a good understanding of the search patterns of customers
• Campaigns can be set up quickly

Your adverts are displayed to the right users at the right time.

Web development is the work that involves developing a website for the internet.

You may develop a CMS (content management system) to allow an end user to make content changes easily with limited or no technical skills required. This is the best option for most websites in 2021.

You could develop a website that is only changed by editing custom code or you could use a template that is pre-built by a 3^rd party where there are some options to change sections of the content.

The problem with a developer only website is that content changes can only be made by a developer. This is costly and the could make the website static and outdated. If you a template for your website, then there is little room for content changes and you will not be able to fully optimise your content. In fact, search engines like Google will see your website as a copy and not promote your website in search results.

Evofrog Network

Our innovative website design & hosting service is what make us the best in the industry. We have developed the Evofrog Network to provide our clients with a unique fully managed setup, hosting & maintenance service based on usage of the latest top-level technology standards.

This extremely powerful infrastructure enables us to ensure our websites are fast, reliable and secure. As well as providing our clients with the highest preforming Content Management System which includes secure back-end content editing facilities available 24/7. This unique approach is unrivalled anywhere else and means we can deliver our service as cost effectively as possible.

In general, web development can range from developing a simple page of plain text to complicated web applications that can be the backbone of a the whole busines. Web development work may include client liaison, web design, scripting, database management, operating system setup / maintenance, network management / security, and ecommerce development, coding, front end development and interface design.

Mobile development is now very much at the forefront of web development since most users of the internet browse websites using their mobile phones. Making sure your website / application is mobile friendly is a key aspect of work in 2021. The rise of the mobile usage has guaranteed that most developers will always make sure their website / application will work as perfectly on a mobile device as it does on a desktop device.

Marketing

The main objective of web development is almost always to make potential customers aware of the products or services, so you must make sure you always put marketing at the top of your focus.

The first task for any web developer is to carry out a marketing health check for the client. This involves identifying core business objectives and current levels of market reach. This should provide a full review and analysis of the brand’s strengths and weaknesses, company culture and ethos, target audience, competition and market. For example, you should access all analytics and social media accounts available to help gauge budget for potential campaigns.

Much of what you have to consider in 2021 is what is known in the marketing industry as “Digital Marketing”. This basically means marketing campaigns using the online / internet medium.

Digital marketing is unlike most other campaigns because you can measure and report quite a lot of what you do. For example, if you run a social media campaign you will be able to look through the history metrics to scrutinise which adverts are the most effective.

Business objectives should be closely linked to KPIs (key performance indicators). The enables easy sight of ROI (return of investment).

SEO

Search Engine Optimisation is crucial because if your website is a search engine like Google does not think your website for you preferred key words / target market, then you will not appear. Evofrog builds all websites to make sure your website has the best potential to rank high in search results.

Social media is another great asset you can employ to reach your target market. As social media becomes more popular than ever, you need to invest the time and effort to promote your brand on the relevant social media platforms.

Business outreach is a key area which will provide you business with plenty of content. For example, you could setup interview with key people in your organisation or provide commentary of public interest issues which affect your industry.

To make sure you increase your visibility on search engines and social media platforms, you should allocate resources to a targeted advertising budget. But this must be meticulously planned to ensure cost effective spending.

Whilst digital marketing is now at the forefront of most marketing campaigns you must invest in other areas such as flyer campaigns and radio adverts. Evofrog are proud to have helped some of the most successful businesses and organisations in Ireland increase market reach & profitability using cost effective marketing strategies.

In order to design a website, you need to do your homework before you start to work on building the design. Based in Belfast, Evofrog have been at the cutting edge of web design since 1998 and provide a personalised service for each project. Although each website is different, there are similar areas of work that each web designer needs to think about. It is a good idea to check the competition and target market to see what you client’s needs would be in the future. You need to determine your client’s expectations to provide exactly what they need.

Strategic Objectives

The website needs to have a clear purpose and strategy.

Most new websites made in Belfast are based around new brands, due to the high number of entrepreneurs and small businesses in Northern Ireland. Therefore, web design tends to focus heavily on brand development to raise awareness, increase leads / enquiries and increase visibility in specific target markets.

The latest web design trends should be researched. For example, some of most popular design trends for 2021 include:

Choosing a platform and the infrastructure for your website is the most important decision you will need to make. The platform, and how you build your infrastructure, will heavily impact on your design, features, build time, resources needed, security, support and cost. Make sure that your website is fast, reliable and secure.

Evofrog websites are always of a high standard built upon our premium web platform infrastructure. We only use the latest top-level technology and continually update and upgrade the platform.

If you do not already have a high quality logo that is a perfect representation of the company or organisation you are promoting, you will to create a logo first. The logo will determine a large part of the layout of the website.

Our team have designed some of the most widely recognised logos used in Belfast and beyond, which have been central to promoting clients’ brand development with various marketing strategies.

Website Layout

When designing the website layout, you need to know the type of features required for the website you are building.

Layouts are the core of the interface design, which will determine the feel of the brand, product or service that you are offering. The layout must match the style of the logo. Chose colours, font styles and images that go well with your logo.

Colour is important in branding. Different colours trigger different emotions. For example, green is a calming colour and relates to nature. When deciding what colour to use it is important to research its effects to see if it is appropriate for your brand.

The correct style needs to be implemented to keep your brand awareness on point and build customer trust.

The navigation function of your website needs to be clear and precise so users have a memorable visit and can easily find the correct content.

Content styling, white space and appropriate sectioning are important, because if implemented wrongly your visitors will leave your website.

Logo Design

Another thing to think about is the size and position of the logo. Most websites have the logo positioned at the top left because this is the first place most humans look when they first look at a page or website.

Most people will only spend a few seconds looking at a webpage before they decide what to do next.

Content that is well written and optimised for the internet, is normally at the top of search engine results. Make sure your website gets the attention it deserves by knowing your target audience.

Always proofread text before being published on your website. You will need to check for spelling as well as grammar. Any images uploaded should be optimised for the internet and all links should be tested. If you have any 3^rd party integrations, you will need to check to ensure functionally.

With the internet becoming increasing popular on mobile devices, you need to make sure your website is perfect on any device.

Website Monitoring

After a website is published and live, it should be monitored 24/7 using different types of monitoring services. For example, if a website goes offline, it should trigger an alarm to the correct team who manage support for your website infrastructure.

Another important aspect that you need to implement are regular usability checks and brand monitoring.

Search Engine Optimisation and Social Media are two of the best aids you can utilise to keep your website relevant and improve your market reach.

Speed and performance are key factors which improve user experience and makes sure your website will have the best chance ranking highly in search results for your type of content.

We are proud to be leading the way in making sure every website we design covers all bases. The above is only a general snippet of what you need to be thinking about to implement web design effectively. For example, our team based in our Belfast HQ carries out a thorough analysis of brand market reach and potential before any web design is planned, and all our websites are maintained on the best hosting infrastructure available.

The World Wide Web

The idea of a World Wide Web is dated back to 1946, when it was described in a story by Murray Leinster. But the online internet we know today was the result of a need to properly manage vast amounts of data connected via various servers around the world. The first true World Wide Web was created by Tim Berner-Lee in 1989. Tim used the idea of hypertext and connected it with Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and the domain name system – which created the World Wide Web and the very first web browser followed.

1990 – 1998 Innovation

Tim Berner-Lee published the first website on 20th December 1990 followed by a period of innovation which produced Evofrog’s first website in 1998. The start of the internet and web design in Belfast and around the world. Completely text based web design until 1993 when the first images appeared in websites. Only 16 colours supported until later when web developers had 256 colours to choose from. 1994 seen the explosion of innovation which brings a range of technology to web designers such as online adverts, 3D buttons, PHP, JavaScript and CCS.

1998 – 2002 Content, Menus & Navigation

Renewed focus on cataloguing content brings People.com, Internet Explorer 6 and Google into the space. Dark themes becoming the norm and the invention of the gradients. 800 x 600 becoming the most popular monitor resolution. CSS2 released.

2002 – 2006 Website Speed Skyrockets

As ISP deliver higher connection speeds, web designers are able to utilise Flash, Splash and Animation. By 2005 YouTube launches with video steaming on the rise. Facebook, Firefox and WordPress get started. Web designers focus on readability and functionality. Myspace is launched. Millions of website users upgrade to 1024 x 786 or higher resolution. 2003 sees half of all internet devices using 4 or 32 bit hardware giving web designers the choice of over 16 million colours.

2006 – 2010 Beautiful Web Design

Stock photography and high resolution devices see picture perfect designs available on most modern websites. HTML5, Google Chrome and iPhone’s Safari web browser make the internet accessible and mobile. Video content continues to rise with YouTube being bought by Google in 2006.

2010 – 2014 Flat and Minimal

Web designers have more options than ever. Businesses increasingly focus on web design. The rise in mobile web browsing brings Responsive Web Development, CCS3, and over 1 billion websites online. JavaScript and GIF animations become popular. 1152 x 864 is now the most used monitor resolution. Safari, Chrome, Internet Explorer, Firefox and Opera dominate mobile devices.

2014 – present Evolution of Web Design in Belfast

Decades of evolution have placed Evofrog right at the top of the innovation tree when it comes to Web Design in Belfast. HTML, responsive design and CSS have continued to be refined and Evofrog leads the way towards the next number of decades, whether it is more use of AI or VR. New Microsoft Edge, based on Chromium, was created in 2018. At Evofrog, we are helping some of the most successful businesses and organisations throughout Ireland to help increase market reach & profitability with the highest standards of business class solutions which keep our clients ahead of the game.

What is a URL redirect?

If you are ever making a new website or redesigning an old one you most certainly will need to know a way of redirecting URLs.

A URL – Uniform Resource Locator – is basically the website address. It is the thing everybody sees at the top middle of every Web Broswer. Without URLs you would not have the internet. URLs allow websites to connect!

Since the url is extremely important for websites, it can be very inconvenient for your website users if you do not know how to redirect one URL to another URL.

Easiest way to redirect URL

Thankfully, there is an extremely fast and easy way to implement a URL redirect.

The fastest and easiest way to redirect any webpage / website, is to place a redirect script into the place where you need to redirect from. Surprisingly you do not need to have access to the place you are redirecting to, but you do need to have access to the place where you are redirecting from.

The two main ways to access the place where you are directing from is to log into your web hosting platform online via their website or using free FTP software like Filezilla.

Once you are looking at your web hosting directory, you need to navigate to the folder where the old URL is. If it is the whole website, then the root (base) directory is where you want to be.

The trick is to place a .html file (with redirect script) in that folder and remove the old files (download to your computer before deleting if you want to keep your website files).

Making the .html file

The fastest and easiest way of making the .html file is to open up a blank Notepad / Notepad ++ document.

Paste in the following script (change | to < & >):

|head|

|meta http-equiv=”refresh” content=”0; url=http://www.newwebsite.com”|

|/head|

|body|

|/body|

Change www.newwebsite.com to the new website.

And save your file as index.html

Upload your new index.html file to the directory folder and make sure the filename is exactly index.html

If it is not, rename it.

Once that is done, when you navigate to the old URL in a Web Browser – you should be automatically redirected to the new website!