Building great content and keeping it up to date is the key to SEO, when writing your content use informative, qualitative and creative words that you think your potential clients would google for. Google searches through your site for these words which helps with your Google Rank.

Another way to increase your sites page rank is to submit it to local business directories once completed. This will increase back links which will be good for search engine results.

Add a blog … they are a great way to get traffic to your website. You can add fresh content easily and regularly. Search engines love fresh content! Blogs increase in size overtime and can provide a distinct SEO advantage.

Websites designed by Design House generally come up first listing, first page for their business name and some related google searches but it is not possible to guarantee coming up first for every search. We certainly do everything possible to give your business website the best chance.

There are just far too many bigger (numerous pages), larger businesses / companies and longer established websites which google gives more importance to out there for you to come up first for a search of every single possible key word related to your business. However, we can construct your website to target your businesses most important keywords.

Once your website goes live it takes up to three weeks for google to start indexing … and then you can see how your website starts to rank.

Posted in General News, General Tips, Technology | Photography ~ No Comments

When I comment on my blog you will notice my face appears to the right. This is a Gravatar.

Your Gravatar is an image that follows you from site to site appearing beside your name when you do things like comment or post on a blog. Avatars help identify your posts on blogs and web forums, so why not on any site?

Click here to get your FREE Gravatar!

Posted in Blogs, General News, General Tips, Technology | Photography ~ No Comments

A business card is a fundamental part of any good marketing plan and for its size and cost; it’s probably the most powerful part. They should present a professional image people will remember plus your business card can make or break a client’s first impression of your business.

Having your face on your card helps a contact remember you the next time he or she sees you.

Your business card design should also match your business image….. Does yours?

1,000 business cards, only $150 + gst

Posted in General News, General Tips, Graphic Design Clients | Reviews ~ No Comments

by Jeanette

It’s not hard going green …. why not follow my SIMPLE cost effective, time enhancing practices and make your business environmentally friendly while saving money … it’s important we all do our part.

The Department of Environment and Resource Management (DERM) approached Design House to produce a range of material, including information guidelines and information sheets, for publication on the DERM website.

These publications will focus on the energy efficiency and sustainable practices used by Design House as an example of what can be easily and quickly realised by industry to save energy through the adoption of effective practices

Heating and Cooling & The ‘paperless’ office

More info here!

Posted in Environment, General News, General Tips, In the Media ~ No Comments

It’s becoming more and more common – more and more people are receiving domain name renewal notices via the mail or via fax.

In most cases, these are nothing but a scam and a way to rip you off a few hundred dollars, from $50 to $300.

If you are a Design House customer, then it’s most likely that we will be managing your domain name for you, and when your domain name does come up for renewal, you will automatically be notified by our billing system that your domain will expire in 90,60, and 30 days.

What are domain name renewal scams?

A domain name is simply an internet address, used to help people get to a website. For example, the SCAMwatch domain name is scamwatch.gov.au. Domain names must be renewed every couple of years.

Domain name renewal scams can work in one of two ways. You might be sent an invoice for a domain name that is very similar to your current domain name – the scammer hopes that you don’t notice the difference and just pay the invoice.

Alternatively, you could be sent a letter that looks like a renewal notice for your actual domain name, but is from a different company to the one you have previously used to register your domain name.

More info over at ScamWatch.gov.au

Posted in General Tips ~ No Comments

Still scratching your head about a website? Take a look at this vide, that was on the TV Show, Kochies Business Builders. It covers a heap of ideas from Business Consultant, Linda Hailey.

At Design House, we have the Technical knowledge and Design Creativeness to build you a website that will work for your business.

Click here to watch the video

Posted in General Tips ~ No Comments

There is only one employee that can work 24/7, assist unlimited customers at one time, not take sick days, arrive late or cost you a weekly wage.

It’s your website! Your website has the potential to be the most valuable employee at your business.

When planning your website the website team at Design House, we ask what you aim to achieve with your website.

A good way to think of your website is how you can replicate systems and commonly performed tasks at your office.

Programming can be used to build small applications that can save you hundreds and thousands of staff hours, freeing your staff up to do more important things.

Posted in General Tips ~ No Comments

For those who blog in WordPress, you probably write your post up in something like Microsoft Word. I see it on a day to day basis, people copying out of word, into WordPress. Although it looks like it worked, Word makes a huge mess of the formatting / coding.

However, tinkering around in the latest version of WordPress 2.5.1 which has got a tonne of great new features. One of which, is a Paste from Word feature. Basically, you copy your text straight out of word, into this box, and it converts it to neat, clean, tidy code.

To access this feature, you need to switch the second tool bar on when typing a new post or page. To swtich on the “Kitchen Sink” as it’s called, either press Alt + Shift + Z or click on the little icon that looks like this;

Posted in General Tips ~ No Comments

You probably know that a website is one of the most cost effective and useful advertising tools a business can have. It’s something that is open 24/7 and lasts all year – unlike basically any other medium plus it can have as little or as much information as you want on it…. pretty much unlimited.

Once you have your website – how do people view it? There is definitely a market of people who are searching for the services or products online and would find your site if it is optimised for search engines or discovered through online ads such as Google Adsense. But there is most likely an even larger amount of people who still trawl through traditional mediums, such as the newspaper, billboards, flyer’s, radio and TV.

If you have a website, and employ additional marketing mediums for your business, you should always advertise your website. What you can’t say or do on your tv, radio or paper ad, you can more likely do on your website. You can sell your products in more detail, track visitors, complete online sales and more. If you have invested in a website you should definitely be taking your visitors through to it!

Your website has additional powers that no other marketing medium has…. you know who has actually looked at your site, in accuracy. You can also track how many people have visited your website from watching TV or reading the Newspaper, or hearing your ad on the radio. Your website can help you partition your marketing budget into what is working the best for you.

At Design House, we can help you use your website to its greatest advantage. We know all the tips and tricks of the trade, that can help you market your business more effectively.

Posted in General Tips ~ No Comments

I received a phone call from a client recently who had signed up for their website and was about to go somewhere else for some other print media, like business cards.

A lot of people don’t know that Design House can design and print everything you need! From business cards, letter heads, flyer’s, stubbie coolers, right up to car / shop signage and newspaper ads. We don’t only just create outstanding websites,  we also design print and promotional media keeping the clients branding and theme the same throughout all mediums.

Take a look at what exactly we can do for your business!

Posted in General Tips ~ No Comments