This blog generally doesn’t concern itself with political matters; it does attempt to remain reasonably topical instead. This week’s post will concern the resignation of Ms Paris Brown the Countries first youth police and crime commissioner (PCC) Ms Brown made a number of potentially offensive but definitely misguided tweets on the twitter social network, the furore this caused resulted in Ms Brown having to resign from her post and considerable embarrassment to Kent Police. What I find remarkable about this scandal is not the fact a young woman made indiscreet choices when using a major social network, is the fact that major organisations are still allowing these elementary social networking mistakes to be made by their representatives, although brand is not the correct term for a Police authority, they do have a reputation to uphold, this alone suggests that Kent Police authority need to analyse their organisations approach to social networks with Ms Browns former boss Anne Barnes suggesting that Kent Police’s vetting procedures, which were used during the recruitment process, did not normally require social networks to be scrutinised for posts of this grade.(source: BBC)

Adjusting Google places for multiple locations

Houston we have a problem

Id imagine it’s a fairly common dilemma,I’ve certainly encountered it a number of times. Your business serves an area containing a number of towns, how does one set up Google places to cover what I will refer to as a district, this guide will hope to make the process fairly easy, it assumes you already possess a verified Google places listing for your business.

1. Log into Google Places

   Here’s a direct link Google places



1.0 places for business

2. Edit your business listing



2.0 Edit business Listing

3. Adjust your Service areas accordingly

   my profile includes Morecambe & the South Lakes, I wish to include Lancaster in my service areas, there is two ways to achieve this either by a list of areas covered or by a radius from your Google places home location, which is the option I have gone for



Google places service areas

Conclusions

Google places is free and it definitely has an impact on search rankings and will probably be merged with Google plus in the near future so time spent getting the most out of this service is in my opinion time well spent especially if your business has a website or online presence

Credibility

Having a fully developed online footprint is a vital part of establishing your organisations credibility, which is vital for online business

I’m busy formulating business strategy for the new year, This includes various content management and ecommerce packages available. I’ve set up a local Lamp server and I’m pleasantly surprised how good Linux Mint is, additionally I’ve been evaluating Drupal, I’ve come to the conclusion its vastly overpowered for the type of websites I generally develop, so I’ll be continuing to use WordPress for the majority of my websites , this is not denigrating Drupal in any way its simply far too powerful for the small business websites I work on , another factor influencing this decision is the user friendliness of WordPress which makes it perfect for clients who are slightly wary of Information Technology.

As my previous job has now come to an end its time to update the blog and bring the overall site up to date, and ensure that I post on a regular basis, with the release of the Google Panda & Penguin algorithm updates everything has changed and your company’s website needs to change in order to acknowledge this. Rhetoric & hyperbole aside everything has changed. Keyword density is no longer a positive ranking factor. Simply repeating the keyword you wish to rank for ad nauseum is not going to help your website, on the contrary Google is likely to punish your site.

Quality Content is King

Personally I feel this is a positive change by Google and given time lead to a better quality web to revise the old Canard Quality Content is King, I personally don’t regard semi relevant stock imagery as top quality content

This week my blog will examine what I consider to be the main problems with websites, after examining these problems I’ll develop a number of recommendations to help in the development of successful, fit for purpose Small Business websites, in my opinion the number one problem is a lack of clarity about the website’s aims, fortunately the solution for this problem is pretty straightforward

1. Ensure the website has a clear aim

I know this sounds obvious, I find it surprising how many people don’t know what their companies website is really meant to be achieving, if a site has a clear goal so many factors fall into place, like what should the blog focus on? What SEO Keywords the website targets, and how should the site be structured? Is the purpose of the site is to sell widgets? If so the site should make the purchase of widgets extremely simple, whilst displaying the widgets on offer in an attractive manner.

2. Understand your Audience& Customers

The next essential consideration for potential website owners would be to appreciate the intended audience for the website, this influences the writing style employed, featured content and images used by the website. What might be a great image for a website aimed at a teenage market would perhaps be inappropriate for a website aimed at senior citizens

3. Interaction, Interaction, Interaction

The final ingredient for a successful online presence is interaction, although web 2.0 is a frequently bandied around term, interaction with friends and customers lies at the heart of it, once you get to know your website visitors and customers you can develop website content and services they want, hopefully boosting website traffic and sales
These Considerations won’t guarantee online success but they will certainly lead to a more focussed website which has a genuine goal rather than a wishy-washy website which appears to have no direction. If the site has a clear goal its success or failure can be monitored and steps taken to remedy shortcomings where necessary.

I appreciate it’s not the most enthralling of topics, for owners of websites in the United Kingdom it is important. Recently the EU Privacy Directive (26th May 2012) has changed the law regarding the storage and use of cookies by websites, as this guide is written for small business owners I’ll avoid using excessive technical or legal Jargon.

What are Cookies?

Cookies are small data file stored by an internet browser on a computer or mobile device. The Chances are that if a user is logged in to a website it is achieved by the use of cookies. Detailed examination of all the different cookie types is beyond the scope of this guide.

So what does this new law require?

The new regulations have two major requirements. These are as follows

• The Requirement to inform users
• The Requirement to Offer consent to users

Of the two requirements consent is the more complicated.

What is Implied Consent?

When a user continues to use a website they know contains cookies they are said to have given implied consent for the website Owner to use the cookies

Solutions

At the time of writing I am aware of two plug ins for WordPress which satisfy the legislation, these are Cookie Cuttr and EU Cookie Law

Disclaimer

I have no formal legal training this article is intended for brief guidance only

Sources

The following have been invaluable in the production of this article

• Cookies Regulations and the New EU Cookie Law
• The BBC unveils its eu cookie law solution
• ICO Cookie Guidance Brochure

As I’m currently between projects I’ve been tightening up the typography on the website, as I understand it, the headings and body text are now completely correct. If any graphic designers or typographers wish to point out mistakes they are more than welcome. Quite a lot of new content has been added to the website as the final site structure becomes more evident

I have to admit I was dubious for a very long time about the value of Facebook however in today’s networked society it is by far the best way of connecting with your customers (for some business’ it would be an inappropriate social network to utilise), amongst certain demographics a Facebook account is the norm i.e. everyone has one, especially with younger age groups. It is all too easy to go overboard with your sites integration to Facebook, it should be used to enhance the User experience with your website rather than completely overwhelm it with an abundance of icons and logos, the face pile sidebar block was a feature I was keen to implement but the Facebook comments block had an unacceptable impact on page loading times