I can only advice you to subscribe to the newsletter and like our Facebook page to be the first to know when we are launching.

You can also have a look at the first Creative Like Us website for an amazing artist living in Budapest: Ludovic Thiriez.

Talk to you soon!

About the project

It was a real pleasure to work for my first travel agency. I got to watch beautiful pictures of a beautiful country… And I know that if I choose to travel to Nepal in the future I will have a great guide to tour or to do some trekking.

The agency wanted to keep some elements of their previous website (the black background, the colours and the yeti steps in the background) but basically wanted to improve everything else: the navigation, the layout, the SEO, the accessibility and of course with a Content Management System to add new tours and feedbacks onto the site…

They now have a very complete website to present their agency, the country and their tours (well-being, trekking, cultural). Have a look, you might fall in love with the country and choose your destination for your next holidays.

Please note that the website is billingual (French and English) but that some pages haven’t been translated into English yet. They are working on it!

About the project

ESCAL’Architecture is officially the first client located in France for Lemonfig.

This small architecture practice based in Poitiers, wanted a very simple and clean design without any blog or contact details on their homepage. More than a business website, they wanted a portfolio to present their work to their future clients.

The Project Pages

The best thing of this site, is that they can add a lot of technical details for each project, but if they don’t enter one of them, it won’t show at all on the page.
They can also add as many pictures as they want for each project which will come up as a little gallery at the bottom of the page.

About the project

Frontline Actors’ Agency is a co-operative agency based in Dublin and is celebrating ten successful years in the industry.

The new website was redesigned and redeveloped with WordPress. The main challenge was to give to each actor the possibility to update their own page which can include:

• Biog
• Picture Gallery
• Showreel
• Voice sample
• PDF Downloadable CV
• Spotlight Link

And of course, if some of the elements are not relevant to an actor, they don’t appear on the page at all.

It was difficult for me to tell my clients “There is a new version coming soon, very soon, but I don’t know exactly when. But, yes, it’s better if we wait for the new version as it will include a lot of new exciting features!”

But it’s what I did, and I think it was worth the wait, especially for the one page and guest check out or the compare products feature clearly missing in the previous version.

Why Prestashop rather than an other E-commerce solution?

Well, like every web designer proficient with HTML and CSS but not quite a PHP expert, I am using solutions developed, tested and supported by professionals. I use WordPress a lot as the Content Management System for brochure websites but I had to find an other solution for clients wanting to sell online through their website.

I’ve studied the different solutions available on the market, downloading and testing most of them. I won’t make a review of each of them, but here are the ones I’ve tested:

• Opencart
• OS Commerce
• Xcart
• Zen Cart
• Magento
• Ecwid
• Wosbee
• Prestashop

I wouldn’t say that Prestashop is THE solution for everybody, and some of the solutions listed above are very powerful and will probably offer different features for different needs. But here is why I finally chose to develop with Prestashop:

1. The Administration Panel is user-friendly. And for me, providing my clients with a content management system that they will be able to use without a 2 weeks training is VERY important.
2. The solution includes all the features you could be expecting from an e-commerce solution. See list of features.
3. There are a lot of premium of free modules to make it even more powerful or customised.
4. There is a “Prestashop Community”. Even if it’s not as big as the Magento or the OS Commerce community, it can help you through the installing or set-up process.
5. I can customise the design and layout easily. So my clients get their shop to look good as well!

Of course, none of the solutions are absolutely perfect, so I wouldn’t qualify as such, but it has been pretty good so far. For Restaurant Express, for example, I purchased a plugin to offer the customers with a “One page and guest check out” which is now included in the new version.

What’s new?

Examples of new features:

Catalog

Compare Products
Allows customers to easily compare the features of several products simultaneously.

Customers

Customers service interface integrated into the back office
Interface that centralizes customer messages sent through the contact form and keeps a chronology of the messages sent about orders

Orders

One page checkout
Limit your shopping cart abandonment rate by allowing your customers to order all on a single page!

Guest checkout
Now there’s s a simpler, faster process for increase your buyer conversion rate: Allow your customers to order without creating a customer account!

Payment

Authorize AIM
The most popular payment system in USA is now available in standard in PrestaShop.

PrestaShop Security
A new module that evaluates transactions with a reliability score. This module integrated into PrestaShop helps fight against fraud.

Shipping

New carriers : UPS, USPS, FedEx
New modules added to handle your shipments with new carriers: UPS, USPS and FedEx in the USA.

Back-Office

Ability to edit your theme directly from the front office! (LiveEdit)
Ability to move your modules with a “drag-and-drop” directly through the Front Office.

Import / Export

Web service
Open your store to new opportunities and connect it with other software!

Import OsCommerce shops.
Ability to import a whole OsCommerce shops : catalog, clients, orders, categories..

CORE

Core overload, override
Possibility of overloading controllers and business classes. Possibility of developing new features without modifying the application core. Updates are easier!

If you are interested in selling online and think that Prestashop is the right way to go, contact me now for a free estimate.

Shooting took place at the beginning of December and I just got the final editing today! It was hard to keep looking at the camera for the whole speech and it took me 3 or 4 takes to get all the words out right!
A little regret: talking about 2010 and 2011 in it as it’s going to age pretty quickly.

PS: I forgot how hard it was to hear myself talking!

Even if they are not all Irish, the following directories are aimed for Irish Businesses and wouldn’t be relevant for other countries. I tried to find directories that are worth considering when you are trying to improve your SEO, increase your back links, etc. The good news is that I found some! However, I also found some directories which are rather a waste of time.

A good directory is a directory, which:

1. Allows you to Submit your Business for Free and is not asking for an exchange.
2. Publishes your Web Address for Free and opens the website in a new window (not a frame).
3. Has a good Page Rank / Ranking in Google.
4. Is quick to add your entry.
5. Is easy to use for you and user-friendly for visitors.

Some of the directories below don’t fit into all these criteria but I chose to present them anyway with a quick review so you know what to expect.

It is important to say that directories are one easy way to get backlinks, and backlinks are important in the Search Engine world. However, the best links you can get are from websites in the same sector/profession. I cannot provide a list, but I will try to write a methodology in the future. In the meantime, directories can help!!

Also, don’t hesitate in sending me directories that I might have missed or let me know if one of the description is no longer true when you read this article.

1) Hotfrog.ie

Hotfrog for me is by far the best directory out there at the moment. It is free, it is very user-friendly, it allows you to add not only your Web Address but also your Contact Details, a long business description, your opening hours, as many products and services as you want, coupons/offers, images… and all of these for free!

The design is slick and nice, if you update your profile, you get first on their homepage under “New & Updated Businesses”.

They advertise a number of 5000 people searching on Hotfrog all the time. I don’t know if it’s true but what I know is that it often comes up in the Google Results for many searches and I like it!

I just spotted one thing: when you search for something now, instead of listing the results as part of Hotfrog, they are now listing Google Results within a Hotfrog page. I don’t think it changes much, but I preferred the previous system.

One single problem: adding services and products doesn’t work with Google Chrome. I had to switch back to Firefox, then it worked like a charm!

2) Vazumo.com

Vazumo is a well designed and attractive website and I would say they are a competitor of Golden Pages rather than being a web directory.

For free, you can add the following details to the listing:

• Business Name
• Business Address
• Business Telephone Number
• Business Email
• Business Website
• Be added to one relevant search category

You can also add your business logo and obtain a unique and free URL to your vazumo page. Ex: www.vazumo.com/lemonfigcreative

To get started visit the Add Your Business Details page.

3) Whoseview.ie

Whoseview is a very nicely designed and user-friendly website claiming 400000 monthly visitors and promising you a better exposure on Google.

Whoseview is designed for all types of businesses. You can check all their categories on the website. Main categories are: Restaurant, Food & Drinks, Bars & Nightlife, Shopping & Fashion, Health & Beauty, Arts & Culture, Hotels & Travels, Local & Home Services, Recreation, Automotive.

One detail worth considering: people might put reviews on your business on this website, so if you add your website in it, you have to accept receiving negative reviews as well as good ones. Not adding your website won’t protect you from bad press anyway, as anybody can add your business on the site.

Plus Google uses Whoseview’s reviews for its Google Map / Google Places pages. If you have good reviews, it’s great, 5 stars on Whoseview will show 5 stars on Google Map. If they are negative, the opposite will happen.

Check if your business is already on the site and claim it. If not, creating your page will allow you to get the following on your page:

• Contact Details including Website
• One photo
• RSS Feeds of your reviews to embed in your own website

Start here to claim or add your business on Whoseview.

4) QYPE

A very nice directory/reviews website where you can add your business for free. You can spice up your business page by adding pictures, vouchers and promote it by sending an email to your customers and ask them to post a review on your business.

It is a UK website which opened to the rest of the world. Dublin reviewers seem active on the site so it is a place to be.

And just like Whoseview, Google scans Qype reviews and will use them on your Google Map / Google Places profile.

Click here to start adding your business on Qype.

5) RateMyArea.com

Another very good site, very nicely designed and user-friendly. Create an account, add a business and then claim this business.

If you want to claim the business and have a longer description, your logo, free calls for your clients etc. you will need to pay €10 a month. It’s cheaper that other directories I’ve seen and the free listing is a good start!

Free listing page example for Lemonfig –> A “real” link to my website on the left hand side.

6) Yelp.ie

Not as good or as quick as Hotfrog but Yelp has its own advantages: once you have added your business and you have claimed your business page, you will receive updates on your recent activities (How many views, How many clicks etc.) and the website itself has a good ranking.

Personally I never received the email that would allow me to claim my page so I had to contact them. Then, somebody from the support team personally activated my page. You need to be the owner of your business page to be able to add your Web Url. Anybody can create a business page to put a review on it, so check first to see if your business doesn’t already exists.

Just like Whoseview, this website is based on reviews.

If you’re lost, check out the Business Owners Guide.

7) Dublinbynumbers.com

As the name describes, this one is only for Dublin Area.

Free listing includes: Address, Phone Number, Web Link and Email. That’s all you need and it’s easy to add your Business in it!

Click here to access directly to the Add Your Details page.

8) Dmoz.org

Dmoz dmoz dmoz… Everybody will tell you: if you are interested in improving your SEO, you have to be in Dmoz.

The reason is that Google gives a lot of credits to websites listed in Dmoz. The problem is that, of all the websites I submitted in this directory, I can count on one hand the ones that were finally accepted. I tried to apply as an editor to help and get things move quicker, but they refused my first application and didn’t reply to the second.

To put all the chances on your side, follow some simple rules:

1. Choose the right category for your Business. Go as deep as you can in the architecture, go regional if your business is local etc. You could see your submission not being approved because you posted it in the wrong category. Once you found the right category, click on the “Submit Link” on the top right of the site.
2. Enter the right URL for your website (follow their guidelines).
3. Choose a good title, including the name of your business and nothing more (see this page: http://www.dmoz.org/guidelines/describing.html)
4. Choose a good description, clear, not too “marketing”. Look at the description in your category to see what has been accepted.
5. Be patient. It can take 2 months to 2 years to be listed in the directory, so be patient and it’s best not to worry if you never get listed. Also, the editor of your category will probably be annoyed if you submit your link every two weeks.

Click here to start looking at your subcategory within Ireland.

9) mylocaltown.ie

This probably not the most user-friendly directory but it offers a link to your website straight away within your local area. You need to register on the site, click on the activation link in the email received, log-in and then on the left of the page, you should get a menu with a “Add New Post” link. You can then opt for “Add New Services” or “Add New Shops” etc.

The listing will be updated straight away.

The problem is that the list of services categories is a bit light (it doesn’t include “Web Design” for example so I placed Lemonfig in “Others”).

10) irelandlookup.com

This directory has nothing fancy but it will give you what you’re looking for: a link.

It’s easy and quick to add a business, and you can have a description and contact details. The search form is basically a Google Search Form within the site, but you can also navigate through the site using the categories.

For the moment, I didn’t manage to submit a website because of the Category section, which doesn’t work. I sent an email and I will update this page if they come back to me.

And… some more…

Basic and not very user friendly directories but might be worth adding your website in them if you have some extra time to spend on it!

• www.finditireland.com
• www.indexireland.com
• www.irelandlocal.ie
• www.niceone.com
• www.irishsites.com

Example of directories not worth submitting your website

• Tuugo.info

Difficult to say if Tuugo is really worth anything for your business.

Yes, the site is user-friendly and it features very close to number 1 “Hotfrog” as you can add your services, descriptions, images, etc but when you search for anything on the homepage, it shows no results. “Web Design” + “Dublin” didn’t come up with any results, while Lemonfig is in the “Web Design” Category… Odd.

Yes, you have a nice looking page for your business (See the Lemonfig’s one), but if you click on the Company URL, it is not linking directly to your site (so it’s not considered as a backlink) and your website appears under a Tuugo frame which cost $49.95 to remove!!

They offer the possibility to help translating the site in exchange for your listing being on the homepage for 5 days, but the actual “Featured Ads” are small and at the bottom of the page and I don’t think anybody will ever see them, or click on them.

So I would have said this directory could be useful if they got around 5000 visitors everyday but it is very unlikely that they will find your business on it.

• BrowseIreland.com, Browse.ie, Search.ie

BrowseIreland is not what I would call a modern and nicely designed directory.

It’s free, easy to add your business into it and you can update it in the future. The problem: they don’t provide you with a real link towards your website, so you can’t consider it as a back link. The link to your site will look like something like this: http://www.browseireland.com/links/cgi-bin/jump.cgi?ID=52001

I don’t think they have a good ranking either, therefore, it’s actually not worth putting your site into it.

I believe Browse.ie and Search.ie are the same site under another design. They have the exact same functioning anyway.

• www.irelandonthenet.ie

Free and quite a nice site but no link on the website URL. Let’s wait and see if it changes in the future!

Related articles: 

• Easy Search Engine Optimisation Guide – Part 1 – Content Optimisation
• Easy Search Engine Optimisation Guide – Part 2 – Social Media and Backlinks

About the Project

Catherine Roe is a Massage and Reflexology Therapist specialising in Aromatherapy, Healing Massage, Reflexology and Stone Massages.

Catherine needed a new brand identity for Amatouch and wanted the logo designed around the concepts of Serenity, Well Being, Nurturing, Nature and Balance…

Catherine’s mission statement is that everyone should receive a massage at least once a month because every body deserves one.

You can see how we have combined the business card and the fidelity card together and designed an independent gift voucher.

Next in line are a few brochures for Amatouch’s aromatherapy and stone massage treatments.

It shows you how Social Media and Online Marketing such as Blogging are important and gives you an idea of what people (your potential customers) are interested in.

If you are working in Marketing or Web Design and are interested in these resources, you can download the PDF and PPT by filling the form at the end of this page.

Now, we will see what can be done once the site is live to push it further.

1. Social Media

I think we all went through this period when we were already too busy juggling with all the different marketing supports to update our website regularly and hoped that we wouldn’t really need to be on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

Then, we were forced to admit that Facebook and Twitter weren’t only a place for teenagers to tell their friends what they had for dinner, but also a place where companies, bands, restaurants, and other professions could make some business. And if your business is not already on Facebook, you are loosing a huge opportunity to be shared, liked, and commented.

So not only social media give you a cheap platform to advertise  your business (and get other people to do the hard work for you) but Google and Bing recently confirmed that Twitter and Facebook influenced SEO. Yes, ‘who you follow’ and ‘who is following you’ play a role in SEO.
Read the full article from SEOmoz to see how can Social Media influence SEO.

Edit 01/02/2011: Before jumping with your two feet into all these different social media, try to identify your target and see where they spend their time. For example, if your target are teenagers, the best is to concentrate your efforts on Facebook and leave LinkdIn behind. The opposite is true if you’re targeting directly businesses.
If you have time to go on all of them, do, but if your time is already counted, choose wisely!

There are many Social Media tools available, but I will concentrate on the three I know the best:

Facebook

1. Create a Facebook Page: it can be a “Community Page” or an “Official Page” for Local Business, Brand, Product, Organisation, Artist, Band or Public Figure.
2. Get your designer to design a nice Profile picture. A lot can be done, see Lemonfig Facebook Page.
3. Add a Like Button or a Like Box on your website:  this will make it easy for your visitors to “Like” your page (without actually visiting your page on Facebook – 2 clicks saved) and next time you will post an update, it will come up on their wall.
4. Post updates: It’s not enough to have a page, you have to post on it. Your news, tips, special offers, videos, articles. Make sure it is interesting for your fans (it is not your personal Facebook account), or try to be funny. What you post will say a lot about your business personality. The better you are, the more people will share your posts on their wall and the more you will get new followers. Don’t forget to link to your website from time to time (to your new blog article for example)!
5. Once you get more than 25 fans, you can get your custom Facebook Url such as Facebook.com/CompanyName.
6. [Advanced] Facebook can also enable you to remove the registration process for your site by enabling users to log in to your site with their Facebook account. Browse all the possibilities on the facebook site dedicated to developers.

Twitter

1. Twit, twit, twit: same as above, offer to your followers interesting stories (can be the same than facebook), twit infos from your business, retwit from other good Twitter, join lists…
2. Ask your designer to skin your page: a nice background, a profile picture at the right size. It looks so much better!
3. Add a link to your Twitter from your website, add the mention “Follow me on Twitter” and your twitter name in your mail signature.
4. You can also display your last Twits on your website.

Linkedin

1. Create a page for your Company/Business on LinkdIn.
2. Add your services / products on your LinkedIn page.
3. Get all your employees listed under your LinkedIn page and attribute a different employee to each service/product.
4. Join Groups and offer advices and tips in your field.
5. Invite your contacts to recommend you and to follow your page.
6. Advertise your job offers on your LinkdIn page.
7. Add a “Follow Us” on LinkedIn button on your website.

And how do I find the time to update all these social media sites?

You don’t have to update these three sites one by one everyday. Use a Social Media Dashboard like Hootsuit: you post in one place and it publishes on all your social media pages.

And if you want to become an expert in Social Media and post the right content, search for “Social Media SEO” in Google or attend seminars/conferences. Get up-to-date with it now, don’t be left behind!

2. Backlinks & Directories

As far as I can remember, backlink has always been the main focus point of “SEO people”. So important, that some SEO companies were building satellite pages full of keywords and full of links towards the main website. But these practices are not common any more as they can get your site black listed from Google.

What is a Backlink?

Backlink means link to your website from an other website.

In the first article, I talked briefly about PageRank. PageRank goes from 0 to 10 and is different for each page of your website.

If you receive a link from a page with a high PageRank (let’s say 6), it will benefit to your page, and if you multiply such backlinks, your PageRank has more chances to improve. The concept is that the higher the PageRank, the more “serious” and “reliable” you are. If other websites are ready to link to yours, this means that what you say must be interesting. If “reliable websites” link to yours, it’s even better! You see?

How can I get backlinks?

The hard thing, of course, is to build up these links and try to get “quality links”. There are thousands of free directories offering you a link to your website in exchange of a link back to theirs. But getting 200 links from PageRank 0 pages is time consuming and the result won’t be very rewarding.

To check which websites are already linking to yours, you can use Open Site Explorer.

You can also use this tool to check your competitors and see what websites are linking to theirs and see if you can get a link from the same websites. Try and check first the competitors the closest to you and with the best rankings. There is a good article about this on SEOmoz: An Inside Look at Competitors Backlinks with Open Site Explorer.

If you want to know more on how to build Backlinks, read the above article, and then come back to read my next article: “Web Directories in Ireland”, coming soon!

I would just add that there are not only directories from which to get links. If you publish interesting information, other websites and blogs will link to you (like I am doing now in this article). You can also contact other professions in your sector and offer an exchange of links. But your website has to be relevant for their visitors as much as their website is relevant for your visitors.

Last advice: be inventive and unique!

3. Patience & updates

It has been proved that an established website has more chances to get a high ranking than a brand new website. So don’t get scared if your website is not on the first page of Google after 2 weeks. It might take up to 6 months to reach a cruise ranking. But as Search Engines are changing their algorithms regularly, it is never finished and SEO should be an ongoing job. Try to review your stats once a week to see where you get your visits from, and most important: update your website!

Adding blog articles and updating your pages content is important. Search Engine are giving more credit to recent / fresh content than old content, which makes sense. Keeping your site up-to-date will also give you a better reputation.

4. Measure your SEO – Analytics and webmaster tools

I would simply create a Google Account to use for Google Analytics and Webmaster Tools to measure the progress of your SEO and see where you can improve it.

Links

If you’re interested in learning more about SEO:

• Google Page Rank Explained
• How important is the Valid HTML Code to SEO
• The basics of search engine friendly design and development
• 10 Steps to Advanced Keywords Research

Tools to measure and improve your SEO:

• Check your website’s pagerank
• Keywords Tools
• Free Google Analytics

Related articles:

• Easy Search Engine Optimisation Guide – Part 1 – Content Optimisation
• Easy Search Engine Optimisation Guide – Part 3 – 10 Best Web Directories for Irish Businesses