Ecommerce Website Ideas to Improve User Experience

Ecommerce Website Ideas to Improve User Experience Ecommerce websites are notoriously difficult to both provide a good user experience and get good search engine rankings. One of the pitfalls I see time and time again is user drop off before the purchase is completed. If you add up the cost of Read more...

Portmeirion Botanic Garden Poppy

Timed to coincide with the centenary of the start of the First World War and new for 2014, Portmeirion have introduced the stunning poppy motif onto 6 key Botanic Garden pieces: the dinner plate, salad plate, mug, vase, teapot and wall clock - all made in England. See the full range here. Read more...

Ecommerce Website Ideas to Improve User Experience

Ecommerce Website Ideas to Improve User Experience Ecommerce websites are notoriously difficult to both provide a good user experience and get good search engine rankings. One of the pitfalls I see time and time again is user drop off before the purchase is completed. If you add up the cost of Read more...

Content Marketing: it's All About Targeting

Early last year, content marketing surpassed link building, when it comes to search volume. It's definitely not something new, but apparently the term is sufficiently self-explanatory at CEO- and manager level to have earned content marketing a place on the product menus of sales-driven SEO and Read more...

Royal Copenhagen Porcelain on Hit TV Series Borgen

I must be the last person on earth to have watched Borgen, the award winning Danish political TV series. It is hard to believe, particularly in light of our own Government, that a series about Danish coalition politics could be so gripping. But thoroughly absorbing it certainly is, helped no Read more...

Ecommerce Website Ideas to Improve User Experience

Ecommerce Website Ideas to Improve User Experience Ecommerce websites are notoriously difficult to both provide a good user experience and get good search engine rankings. One of the pitfalls I see time and time again is user drop off before the purchase is completed. If you add up the cost of Read more...

An SEO's Advice: the importance of fixing outbound links

This is a guest post by Michael Martinez. As Bing and Google rule out more beloved link building strategies, marketers increasingly turn to supposedly "safe" strategies like broken link replacement (a form of "link reclamation"). I'm not convinced this is as safe a link building strategy as its Read more...

Launch a New Site: Double Your Profit Challenge: You'll Never Know Unless You Do It!

When was the last time you had an idea of a new site, a startup or a new business model? I am sure, you get some cool ideas daily! Then you sleep on it, realize you don't have time or you have some plans or you have other commitments and you just put it away. Related posts: How We Re-Define Read more...

The SEO Guide to Better Web Site Traffic - Part 1

Royal Crown Derby

I recently had lunch with old friends from Royal Crown Derby, Simon Willis (Sales & Marketing Director) and Kate Oakes (National Sales Manager). We talked about how successful the Diamond Jubilee range of china has been - a great opportunity to showcase what great pieces can be made in this Read more...

Google is On the Move Providing More SEO Challenges

Google is On the Move Providing More SEO Challenges Google is determined to change and improve the results it is serving up to its users - Google Gives Search a Refresh - Wall Street Journalnews.google.comWall Street JournalGoogle Gives Search a RefreshWall Street JournalBy AMIR EFRATI Google Read more...

What I've Learned in 3 Years Running a Marketing Agency

Three years ago this August, I quit my job. The 10th also marks my 30th birthday. It might come as no surprise, then, that I've started to do a little reflecting about that time. At no point growing up did I ever expect be an entrepreneur. I didn't even know I wanted to be one The post What Read more...

Monsoon by Denby

Peter Simon founded Monsoon in 1973, after travelling the world and setting up a stall on London's Portobello Road selling clothes with an ethnic origin from faraway places that, at the time, few had visited. Today Monsoon have hundreds of stores around the world selling in-house designed Read more...

How Often Should I Post a New Blog?

How Often Should I Post a New Blog? Adding a Blog to your website should be an essential piece of your overall online marketing strategy in 2015. This not only helps your ranking signals with search engines by providing fresh content which (should) be optimised for searched for keywords but also Read more...

That Time I Had Cancer

(This is a highly personal post so if that isn't your thing then you should move on.) On Friday, October 23 I breathed a sigh of relief as my oncologist told me that my six month PET/CT scan was clear. I am cancer free! High Noon It's an odd thing to sit on that thin That Time I Had Cancer is by Read more...

Keep The Tea Warm During Chilly Afternoons

Tea cosies were first documented in 1867 and have a strong tradition in England. It is thought that the Duchess of Bedford made them popular as she developed the fashion for afternoon tea and needed to keep the tea warm during chilly afternoons. This was a time for networking and keeping up to Read more...

Launch a New Site: Double Your Profit Challenge: You'll Never Know Unless You Do It!

When was the last time you had an idea of a new site, a startup or a new business model? I am sure, you get some cool ideas daily! Then you sleep on it, realize you don't have time or you have some plans or you have other commitments and you just put it away. Related posts: How We Re-Define Read more...

Royal Crown Derby to Supply Dorchester Hotel

We were delighted to read that Royal Crown Derby have been chosen to supply bespoke tableware for the banqueting division of London's five star Dorchester Hotel. Royal Crown Derby, from its beginnings in 1750 to the present day, has been synonymous with exquisite dinnerware and gift items that Read more...

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Launch a New Site: Double Your Profit Challenge: You'll Never Know Unless You Do It!

When was the last time you had an idea of a new site, a startup or a new business model? I am sure, you get some cool ideas daily! Then you sleep on it, realize you don't have time or you have some plans or you have other commitments and you just put it away. Related posts: How We Re-Define Read more...

Denby for sale?

Ben Marlow reported in last week's Sunday Times that Valco Capital are looking to sell Denby in a £25m deal just five years after they saved what was a struggling company making huge losses. The article also mentioned a possible merger with Portmeirion who have consistently performed well over Read more...

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Search Ranking Factors

Search Ranking Factors Something that often amuses me that is thrown around in the SEO industry is the importance of this factor against some other factor. I often wonder where this information originates from and what it is based on. Google certainly don't give it out. As an example, there is a Read more...

An SEO's Advice: the importance of fixing outbound links

Burleigh Pottery Factory Receives Cash from the Stoke on Trent Council

The historic Middleport Pottery in Stoke-on-Trent, where Burleigh Pottery has been produced since 1888, has received a £1.8m cash injection from the city council. Using ball clay from Devon; china clay from Cornwall and the unique skilled decorating process of underglaze transfer printing, Read more...

Twitter Wants to Measure Success Differently

Twitter Wants to Measure Success Differently This is an interesting article on an announcement from Twitter co-founder, Ed Williams on how he is trying to drive through how they measure 'success' on Twitter. Currently this is done on the number of followers, however this metric can be massaged Read more...

Is Click Through Rate A Ranking Signal?

Dartington Wins Royal Approval

Dartington Crystal has won the contract to supply the crystal trophy awards for the Queens Awards. These annual awards are a key event in the business calendar recognising the UK's highest accolade for business success. Neil Hughes, MD of Dartington said "Winning the competitive tender for this Read more...

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An SEO's Advice: the importance of fixing outbound links

National Afternoon Tea Week

We are celebrating the great British tradition of Afternoon Tea this week, together with hotels, restaurants and tearooms across the country. We have hundreds of different options, including lots of different cups and saucers, teapots, cream jugs and sugar bowls and all the accessories you could Read more...

Google's Menagerie Grows Again with Hummingbird

Google's Menagerie Grows Again with Hummingbird On Thursday the 26th September, Google's 15th birthday, Google officially announced they had rolled out a new search algorithm which they called 'Hummingbird'. It is reputedly the biggest update they have made to how searches are returned for many Read more...

Launch a New Site: Double Your Profit Challenge: You'll Never Know Unless You Do It!

When was the last time you had an idea of a new site, a startup or a new business model? I am sure, you get some cool ideas daily! Then you sleep on it, realize you don't have time or you have some plans or you have other commitments and you just put it away. Related posts: Ann Smarty Looking Read more...

Paolozzi's Tottenham Court Road Murals to be Used as Landfill

Those who have visited London in the last few years will be aware of the traffic problems caused by the development of Crossrail - a new suburban rail service that will connect the City, Canary Wharf, the West End and Heathrow Airport to commuter areas east and west of the capital. No doubt this Read more...

Which Wine Glass

A recent study by French Wines with Style, surveyed 2,000 wine drinkers in Britain, and claims that your social status can be determined by the type of wine you choose. It appears that red wine drinkers love to spend money on clothes, white wine drinkers prefer to holiday in this country and Read more...

Launch a New Site: Double Your Profit Challenge: You'll Never Know Unless You Do It!

When was the last time you had an idea of a new site, a startup or a new business model? I am sure, you get some cool ideas daily! Then you sleep on it, realize you don't have time or you have some plans or you have other commitments and you just put it away. Related posts: Ann Smarty Looking Read more...

Why You Need to do SEO

Richard Ginori and Gucci

Vogue.co.uk have reported that Gucci has made an offer to buy out Richard Ginori , the Italian ceramics and tableware company, for €13 million. We believe that the plan is for Gucci to launch its own range of luxury tableware as well as to relaunch the 275 year old Florentine company and keep Read more...

The Next Great British Bake Off? BBC2 Unveils the Great British Pottery Throw Down

The BBC have announced their Autumn schedule and we are very excited to hear that one of their key shows will be The Great British Pottery Throw Down. The aim is to achieve the same for pottery as The Great British Bake Off achieved for homemade cakes and pastries. Described as "Bake Off's Read more...

David Shrigley's Art on a Plate

Following the huge success of artist Martin Creed's commission at sketch in 2012, British visual artist David Shrigley has recently totally transformed the Gallery at this famous London restaurant. Born in 1968 and nominated for the Turner Prize in 2013, David Shrigley has created 239 new works Read more...

Launch a New Site: Double Your Profit Challenge: You'll Never Know Unless You Do It!

When was the last time you had an idea of a new site, a startup or a new business model? I am sure, you get some cool ideas daily! Then you sleep on it, realize you don't have time or you have some plans or you have other commitments and you just put it away. Related posts: Ann Smarty Looking Read more...

Christmas is Coming

Here at Chinacraft, we have been incredibly busy with Thanksgiving orders, both for shipping to the United States, but also for the large community of Americans living in the UK. So now our attention is turning to Christmas and all the fabulous products we have this year. Christmas Dinnerware Read more...

Baroque Inspired Wedding Shoot

We were privileged to be involved in a beautiful wedding shoot based around a Baroque theme recently. The shoot was put together by Elisabetta Cirulli at Linen and Silk and featured in the July/August issue of You & Your Wedding. It was also featured on Bridal Musings. Other people involved Read more...

Peter Rabbit News

CBbeebies are broadcasting a new adaptation of Peter Rabbit for Christmas 2012 and a full series will follow in the Spring of 2013. It promises to be the most realistic so far after animators took over 3000 photos of the area where Beatrix Potter set the original story. Peter's burrow in the Read more...

How to Play out of Google's SEO Bunker

How to Play out of Google's SEO Bunker Google has been implementing a raft of increasingly aggressive changes to alter how websites can get top listings through a 'numbers only game'. We have seen the complete closure of one of the top Article directories (BMR) due to it being delisted by Read more...

Launch a New Site: Double Your Profit Challenge: You'll Never Know Unless You Do It!

When was the last time you had an idea of a new site, a startup or a new business model? I am sure, you get some cool ideas daily! Then you sleep on it, realize you don't have time or you have some plans or you have other commitments and you just put it away. Related posts: Ann Smarty Looking Read more...

Why Should You Use a Decanter?

How does decanting enhance one's wine experience? Frequently regarded as a mere affectation, wine is decanted for two reasons - if it is an older wine, decanting helps to separate the wine from the sediment. For this process to work , you need to have kept the bottle upright for several hours, Read more...

The Tea Break

Rolf Harris Children in Need Plate

Earlier this year, there was talk of Aynsley manufacturing the Diamond Jubilee plate designed by Rolf Harris to raise funds for Children in Need. Despite having received numerous enquiries from customers, we are sad to report that this project will not be going ahead. No doubt the BBC has other Read more...

What I've Learned in 3 Years Running a Marketing Agency

Three years ago this August, I quit my job. The 10th also marks my 30th birthday. It might come as no surprise, then, that I've started to do a little reflecting about that time. At no point growing up did I ever expect be an entrepreneur. I didn't even know I wanted to be one The post What Read more...

New Google Algorithm Change on the Horizon: Prioritize Mobile or Be Penalized

An SEO's Advice: the importance of fixing outbound links

Weekly SEO Diary

Ravings, musing and thoughts on what I see during my travels through a typical week in SEO I will update this with my thoughts and observations from my week in the SEO industry. Read more...

Digging for the Answer to SEO Post Panda and Penguin

Digging for the Answer to SEO Post Panda and Penguin SEO in the Google post Panda and Penguin era has become a real challenge. Keyword rankings are bouncing all over the place, Google is sending out warnings about bad link usage and traffic is getting hit hard in many cases. So where do we go Read more...

7 Drag And Drop Plugins For Building WordPress Sites

7 Drag And Drop Plugins For Building WordPress Sites Drag and drop WordPress page design tools make life so much easier for novices and seasoned developers alike. Building pages from the ground up using styles sheets is time consuming and often limits the tasks to costly coders. I came across Read more...

Content Marketing: it's All About Targeting

Early last year, content marketing surpassed link building, when it comes to search volume. It's definitely not something new, but apparently the term is sufficiently self-explanatory at CEO- and manager level to have earned content marketing a place on the product menus of sales-driven SEO and Read more...

Link Manipulation in Search Engine Optimisation still Works

Link Manipulation Much is written about how search engines are working tirelessly to improve the results they serve up. You could fill a large library with all the advice that has been written on search engine optimisation. Google publicly talks about penalising or even de-indexing websites Read more...

Is Click Through Rate A Ranking Signal?

Are click through rates on search results a ranking signal? The idea is that if the third result on a page is clicked more often than the first that it will, over time, rise to the second or first result. I remember this question being asked numerous times when I was just starting out in the Is Read more...

Google Penguin Update Has a Lot More to Come

Google Penguin Update Has a Lot More to Come According to recent comments from Matt Cutts, the Google Penguin Update has a lot more to come. This article from Chris Crum for WebProNews gives us some insight into what to expect in future months from Google - Google Penguin Update has a lot more Read more...

SEO Services - Smoke and Mirrors?

Copyright: marigranula / 123RF Stock Photo SEO Services - Smoke and Mirrors? I quite frequently hear the comment that SEO is all 'smoke and mirrors' from people who have tried the services of 'SEO Experts'. Why is this? After all it is a skill like any other skill attained from training and Read more...

Search Engine Optimisation – Ensuring Valid and Optimised HTML Code

Search Engine Optimisation – Ensuring Valid and Optimised HTML Code You have built your website, your design team have ensured that it looks good, but has this been properly optimised with regard to the underlying HTML Code? There are only a few tested rules about what HTML tags to use and a Read more...

An SEO’s Advice: the importance of fixing outbound links

This is a guest post by Michael Martinez. As Bing and Google rule out more beloved link building strategies, marketers increasingly turn to supposedly “safe” strategies like broken link replacement (a form of “link reclamation”).  I’m not convinced this is as safe a link building Read more...

SEO Strategies You Should Not Be Using

SEO Strategies You Should Not Be Using This is a great article detailing 4 ways to NOT be building your SEO on. Organic ranking in Google has become increasingly difficult as they strive to improve the way in which the results are returned so as to filter out poor and irrelevant content. These Read more...

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How to Improve Social Shares for Your Blog

How to Improve Social Shares for Your Blog Having a Blog is all well and good but keeping it up to date with new, fresh and interesting content takes time. Investing this time needs a return. The most effective way to get this will be from social sharing of your content. This is a great article Read more...

Search Engine Optimisation Basics – What is it all about?

Search Engine Optimisation Basics Search Engine Optimisation Basics – what is it all about? You have your website built and running with it proudly presenting your products and services. Now what? I speak to many people about their sites and ask what the objectives are for it and get back Read more...

Is Click Through Rate A Ranking Signal?

Are click through rates on search results a ranking signal? The idea is that if the third result on a page is clicked more often than the first that it will, over time, rise to the second or first result. I remember this question being asked numerous times when I was just starting out in the Is Read more...

Content Marketing: it’s All About Targeting

Early last year, content marketing surpassed link building, when it comes to search volume. It’s definitely not something new, but apparently the term is sufficiently self-explanatory at CEO- and manager level to have earned content marketing a place on the product menus of sales-driven SEO Read more...

WordPress Plugin Vulnerability

 WordPress Plugin Vulnerability It was reported this week that a WordPress Plugin -'Revolution Slider' has a major vulnerability in it that allows a hacker to download files from the server. This vulnerability was discovered some months ago but has been kept under wraps by the Read more...

SEO in 2015 from the Experts

SEO in 2015 from the Experts It is always a bit of fun to read 'experts' predictions of what the future will hold, especially when you look back at them later and see just how right or wrong they were! This article from Powered by Search lays out the thoughts of a number of SEO Read more...

Google Ranking Versus Traffic

Google Ranking Versus Traffic Do you get excited when you find your site listed in the top 2 or 3 pages of Google for a particular keyword? Well the latest study by Chitika should tell you not to bother. Even on page 1 there is a huge drop off from position 1 to position 10 in traffic. Every Read more...

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An SEO’s Advice: the importance of fixing outbound links

This is a guest post by Michael Martinez. As Bing and Google rule out more beloved link building strategies, marketers increasingly turn to supposedly “safe” strategies like broken link replacement (a form of “link reclamation”).  I’m not convinced this is as safe a link building Read more...

Google Mobile Search

Google Mobile Search Update It is early days yet to draw any firm conclusions as to what effect the Google Mobile Search algorithm update is going to have on traffic and rankings. It has certainly been a much talked and speculated about change leading up to the 21st April which is the date Read more...

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