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Call us on +44(0)161 880 0122 or manchester@ph-creative.com

Call us on (001) 646 340 1025 or newyork@ph-creative.com

Google Vs YouTube on 'How to...' guides

by Candice Chavalier 2 September 2010 at 16:14

We were having an interesting chat yesterday when the topic of ‘How to…’ guides came about, how many times have you found yourself having trouble with your computer, or having difficulty loading a picture and troubleshooting just wont do the trick. I instantly type into Google something along the lines of ‘how to load a video on ping.fm? ’ Or ‘how can I find my facebook ID number?’ or for instance the other night I could not for the life of me open a tin of tuna with one of those old fashioned tin openers!


When I went to Google and typed in ‘how to open a tin of tuna with an old fashioned tin opener?’ a video from YouTube came up and I was surprised that of all things, this tin opening tutorial was on YouTube.  It made me think about taking a different approach to ‘how to’ guides.


For some it is easier to read what they are trying to figure out, but for some like me, auditory learners, I like to hear the instructions, I can understand easily when I watch something and hear it as suppose to reading it. I know it was only for opening a can of tuna, but it is something worth thinking about when you are including a guide page, or ‘how to…’ page on your site. It can be far more engaging to include a video tutorial for viewers, than for them to just open a 100 page guide book and fish around for what it is they need help with.

See what I did there...tuna...fish around!

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Have yourselves a classy Christmas.

by Candice Chavalier 31 August 2010 at 09:39

You may think it too soon to be talking about Christmas already, but we all know how quickly it creeps up on us, I mean it’s already nearly September! At PH. Creative we’ve been working on Christmas Lights etc. For 10 years they have been decorating trees and lighting them along with extravagantly lighting our homes…and a few celeb homes too! Rumour has it Christmas Lights etc did The Osbournes house, which featured in OK Magazine, not to mention decorating some of the top Premier League footballers homes too.

There is no time like the present to get prepared for the party season and decking out the house, with an array of unique and beautiful trees, decorations and lights from Christmas Lights etc, you can’t go wrong.

How annoying is it when you unpack all the old decorations, and spend age’s untangling those lights, only to find that when plugged in, are in fact broken! Christmas Lights etc can solve that, they have these indestructible lights that will last for many crimbo’s to come, have a look at some of their very convincing videos and see for yourselves: www.christmaslightsetc.co.uk

We’ve been developing a site for them that is simple, clean and tidy to make your shopping experience as enjoyable as possible, be sure to check out the ‘one click does the trick’ link which is everything in one box to create the perfect tree, garland or wreath, its Christmas in a box!

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web design

SEO Tip 2 - Good Usability and Good SEO should go 'hand in hand’

by Dave Hazlehurst 27 August 2010 at 15:55

Good Usability and Good SEO should go 'hand in hand’
 
This is something that sounds obvious, but very often is overlooked.  Web design companies are far too often focused primarily on design; without considering SEO and conversion rate performance, along with many other elements that are the key building blocks for your website and online strategy.
 
The mark of a good agency is blending great design and SEO.  Which are both a science and an art.
 
From the initial brief all success factors must be taken into account.  What are the goals of the site (what do you really want to achieve – I bet its more enquiries, more sales, more business!).  By understanding these factors, we then need to consider the core SEO principles and it shouldn’t surprise you that by building an SEO friendly website, your actually drive good usability.
 
Best practice SEO and usability working together:

Good SEO practice

Enhanced Usability

 Fresh, regular,  compelling content

 

Engage user, increase Google’s indexing of page, and improves your conversion rate

 Page Titles, H tags,

 

Clear sign posts for a user (think supermarket isles, with signage), clarity for user

 Age of domain

 

Builds trust and authority with the user.   Enhances reputation

 Page load time

 

Don’t keep your users waiting – or you’ll lose them

 Inbound links

 

Show others like your site and what you've got to say and sell.  Improves reputation and trust

 

 

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Search Engine Optimisation

Gay Pride of Merseyside.

by Steve Smith 27 August 2010 at 15:47

Liverpool’s first Pride Parade took over the streets on August 7th and 8th, with over 20,000 people joining the party. The whole event was a real success with visitors being treated to stacks of amazing performances including Natasha Hamilton, the ever popular Robin S and one of the UK’s biggest all gay bands-Clubstars.  It was a glittering celebration as the city burst into colour at the Seen Magazine backed festival.


Seen Magazine- is a free publication for Liverpool’s gay and lesbian community, its reader driven with entertaining features, relevant news and local issues. Along with fashion & beauty columns for the super glam! The  team here at PH. Creative helped to develop an engaging and fun website for readers where you can see all the photos from the Liverpool Pride Parade, read up to the moment blogs along with breaking news.

Before 2010, Liverpool was the largest city in the country that didn’t have its own official Pride Festival, the team here at Ph. Creative and Seen Magazine hope the event will be as successful as those held in cities such as London and Manchester.
www.seenmag.co.uk

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company | design | Online News | social media | web design

Mersey Tigers are ready and roaring...

by Steve Smith 27 August 2010 at 11:35

At Ph. Creative we are very pleased to be working on the Mersey Tigers new website that is being launched with aplomb!

We're currently building the Mersey Tigers a strong online presence with their new site which will be launched soon. It will include exciting and clear content, fixture and match listings and much more, along with interactive links to facebook and twitter.

The Mersey Tigers may have lost their association to Everton, but the rebrand has essentially opened up the club to a wider audience, like the red side of the city. In line with the new branding the club also welcomes their new captain Andrew Sullivan.

You can catch the Mersey Tigers get their season under way on September 19th when they challenge the Cheshire Jets in the BBL Trophy at the Echo Arena.

Be sure to keep checking our news for the latest on the Mersey Tigers and Ph. Creative...

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Blogging | conversion | development | social media marketing | Web Technologies

Simple Conversion... Tactic 1

by Steve Smith 26 August 2010 at 11:49

At Ph.Creative, we apply various conversion techniques to our sites with the ultimate goal of capturing as many prospects through a website as possible. There are lots of clever tricks that we apply and over the next few weeks we’ll be giving away some of our pearls of wisdom absolutely free...

To get the ball rolling, our first tip to convert visitors into customers is the most important one, and quite often the one that people struggle with...

The Call to Action

In order to create a compelling call to action your landing page needs to be direct and to the point from the first glance. Don’t over complicate the message or simply assume that users know what they are supposed to do. All landing pages should be designed with an ability to influence - instructing what the user on what to do next every step of the way. This means clear, short calls to action with visual click cues to illustrate what they need to do.

Whilst this is key to engaging your visitors, it's also crucial not to overwhelm the page with too many calls to action. Ideally, a landing page should have one main call to action, supported one or two additional, less important offers. One primary visual cue will help move the visitor towards conversion.

Another good way to ensure users follow the call to action is to support it with a strong testimonial. Tests show that a testimonial specifically placed around the data capture button qualifies the call to action and enhances the potential for a user to use the form.

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Blogging | company | conversion | design | landing page conversion | web design

SEO tip 1 ‘what you really want’ – you want ROI and profit.

by Dave Hazlehurst 24 August 2010 at 08:29
SEO shouldn’t just be focused on your rankings for a particular keyword or keyphrase.  What really matters to you is that the keywords you top of Google for, actually convert into business.  Whether that be an email, a sale, telephone call or ‘live chat’ – you want you SEO to deliver new business for you.

I see this time and again.  It can be people new to SEO or very often its campaigns that have been managed through other agencies.  What all they show is positions for specific keywords.  What you need to be focused on is what keywords have a high conversion rate – making you more money.

How do you do this?

Diligent keyword research Google Keyword tool, using PPC campaigns to help steer your SEO plan and competitor research.  All of this coinciding with you business objectives.

For example, what do you want to sell more off?  What products have higher margins?  Is you business seasonal?  We’re do you make the most money.  These are all questions that should be taken into consideration along with you keyword research, PPC stats and competitor analysis.

By doing this, you’re getting serious about SEO and focusing on keywords that aren’t based around ‘vanity’ but focused on making you money.  

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“The key to this business is personal relationships”

by Bryan Adams 23 August 2010 at 09:00
So its Sunday night, I’m watching Jerry Maguire on the TV, one of my favourite movies, and I’m writing this blog post which started out about how to really leverage social media… what makes good social networking great.

And I can’t help quoting ‘ the late, great, Dicky Fox’, “the key to this business is personal relationships”.

Seth Godin talks about being part of ‘the conversation’ meaning if you get good at it, you’re contributing to a dialogue other people are interested in too. Isn’t this the whole point to social media? Being involved in two way communication in order to grow your network by finding other people interested in what you’re talking about. It’s not about the number of connections, it’s about the quality of them.

Social media gives us the ability to ‘talk’ directly to more people and more importantly to listen and connect. Seth Godin says this better than me, watch this for a minute or so…


I think it’s fairly obvious that the only way to really achieve a useful, growing network that actually contributes to your business is to offer up value first. If you can give away useful information, insights, expertise in a way that’s interesting, easy to understand and easy to implement you will find yourself involved in relevant conversations that create opportunities for you to exploit for the good of your business.

Yes, I could tell you where to post your blog to generate more traffic and how to link to sources that will deliver huge volumes of traffic and I will. But first it’s worth making sure we’re writing about the right things for the right audience for the right reasons.

Your competition is too great to hold back on giving out some of your best advice and expertise. The first time someone reads your thoughts you have to grab hold of them and make them want to come back for more great insights, resources and help. And If you give away great value, imagine the value you impart when you’re contracted!?

So make sure you start with offering up great value. ‘Unless you love everybody, you can’t sell anybody.’… I’m not quite sure how that helps me sum up this blog post but Dicky Fox just popped up on the TV again.

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Blogging

Strategic Blogging for Business

by Bryan Adams 23 August 2010 at 09:00
I still come across many people in business who firmly believe they’ve not got time for blogging because they’ve too busy trying to generate sales.

It’s a short interview worth 2 minutes of your time because although he’s not a self-professed blogging expert by any means he does give a good account of his experience and how he uses blogging and mirco blogging (Twitter) to assist him with business development and sales.

Take a quick look and see what you think.

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Blogging

Google to develop Facebook rival

by Bryan Adams 29 July 2010 at 09:27

Rumour has it that an official announcement is imminent for Google's development of a social networking site to rival Facebook.

The Internet giant has had talks with online gaming companies including Playdom Inc and EA Games to include some of their games on the site.

Following the recent announcement of Facebook's 500 million user success, it's only natural that Kings of Search, Google Inc have decided to develop what could be the next social media phenomenon.

This may well work in their favour to once again dominate the web for all search queries. In recent years, social networking sites have become more intimate and trustworthy than search engines when making decisions, such as finding the best restaurants or choosing a city break.  Real reviews and recommendations via social networking sites have taken the lead - results almost seem as though they come from someone you know.

Users have now come to expect a more personal, descriptive answer to their online search query, as opposed to a simple list of sites, and there's a strong trend for preferred choice of options that come from within a users social circle. As Google would agree, social networking is certainly the way forward.

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Facebook | Google | social media marketing | social networking


 

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