Blog


Facebook vs blog

Facebook vs blog


Posted By on Nov 9, 2012

I just realised I haven’t blogged anything here in an absolute age! I tend to find it easier to just post things on Facebook since it takes no extra effort to be on there anyway… I’m sure lots of other busy business find themselves in the same boat. Even finding time for a quick tweet or facebook post about what the business is up to today can be a struggle but it’s well worth it in the long run. It engages customers if done properly Is a quick and easy way to get a message out It can broaden your customer base if you give existing followers an incentive to share something new (have your staff will probably be on facebook off and on all day anyway so make them do something for you! shhhhh, don’t let on though)...

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Google index followup

Google index followup


Posted By on Jul 19, 2012

All is fixed – seemed to be a delete-this-url record outstanding on webmaster tool for the www. version of the website. Not me! Left over by someone previously. All pages indexed and SEO’d. And relax….

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Google indexing issue

Google indexing issue


Posted By on Jul 17, 2012

I have recently been updating some SEO on an existing site – rowanguesthousegroup.com. Lots of new content, tweaks behind the scene and WordPress updates to get the site properly set up. Trouble is that Google isn’t listing it yet! First time I have ever come across this so I’m working through all the possibilities… Google Webmaster tools verifies it all okay and site is getting crawled by the google bots. (sounds awful but it is a good thing honest!) No errors from the crawling Appears fine on yahoo, bing, etc. Resubmitted sitemap (pending which might take several days!) Checked robots.txt No horrible duplicate site URL stuff going on. Will see what happens over the next day or two and update this post accordingly! Never seen the same issue on any other WordPress sites or otherwise...

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Happy half birthday!

Happy half birthday!


Posted By on Jul 2, 2012

Yes, bcg webdesign is 6 months old and what a 6 months it has been. Work has been a real mix of things Websites created from start to finish SEO on existing/new sites Working with a variety of ‘back-ends’ – WordPress, Joomla, various other CMSs Email template/signature set-up Logo design Shifting servers Dreamweaver lessons dog walking… The other side of work is not always so exciting, but obviously needs attention so I’ve been doing my own booking keeping, filling in lots of HMRC forms, networking with Business Masterminds and 4N, quoting for potential clients, more dog walking, etc. Because I had been doing some of the creative stuff on the side for quite a few years meant it wasn’t a shock to the system starting on January the first (well probably 2nd or 3rd) this year. The business side of it was since I had to do that rather than just fill in a few boxes on the self assessment form. It’s been interesting though and makes you appreciate what all these SMEs do to keep things straight. Keeping me sane throughout it all with sage words of wisdom has been my wife Lorraine who has been running her own businesses for the last 9 years or so. (feel good therapies, calm kids. therapies united). She was the one when I came home with the letter announcing our office closure that cheered! What a great opportunity! It is certainly working out like that 🙂 Jess our 1 year old black lab also deservers some credit for making me/us go out walking several times a day. I do miss the banter with my old work colleagues but we still catch up once in a while and they have all gone on to bigger and better things for sure. Also miss my cycling – even if it was just a brief jaunt to work and the occasional Arthur’s Seat loop. The dog is helping keep me fit of course! Looking forward to the next 6 months and beyond!...

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Rapport speed problems

Rapport speed problems


Posted By on Feb 7, 2012

Not my normal line of work but vastly improved a client’s network connection speed today. Did all the usual checks to see what was slowing things down, Powerline networking was the prime culprit but it was fine. The PC was generally a little sluggish so I looking at the Task Manager showed up a couple of Rapport processes taking up some (but not a lot) of CPU time… Killed them off and removed the program completely and the speed (check with www.speedtest.net) went from 2 or 3 mbps all the way up to proper BT infinity speeds of 35+ mbps. Result! Rapport is supposed to be protecting your online banking experience – protecting it by making it soooo slooooooooow that you can’t do anything on...

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My secret identity…


Posted By on Jan 22, 2012

Following a chat with James Shoemark last Thursday I/We came up with my now not so secret identity. Brainstorming about all the things I can do for people in need of help to get themselves a web presence, improve the one they have, getting social media juices going, or some techie-web-related advice we cam up with a name for me. Master of the Geekiverse Time to don my lycra and cape and do some good...

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