December 16, 2009

The Benefits of Social Networking

The proliferation of social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter has not only changed the landscape of how many people use the internet, but is also creating seismic shifts in how best to promote and optimise your own site to get the best results.

This article gives an excellent explanation as to why you need to be part of this if you want to use your website as a successful part of your business:

http://www.sitepronews.com/2009/12/15/social-media-optimization-shifting-the-landscape-of-search-engine-marketing/

myDreamDesigns is helping to lead the way in integrating social networking into the day to day operation of many of our websites - check out the links on our Home page for an idea of how this can work.

December 14, 2009

Google Personalised Search

A major development in the search engine world has been announced this week, with Google confirming that from now on their personalised search will be rolled out to all users, where previously it would only operate if you were logged into a Google account, and had the option activated. Full details on this update can be found here:

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/12/personalized-search-for-everyone.html

So what are the implications of this change? Well firstly, it's a big boost for already established sites, as their existing popularity will make it easier for them to consolidate their ranking positions, which in turn is going to make it trickier for new sites to come in and make an impact, expecially if they're aiming for competititive keywords.

It will also create a greater focus on fresh content which will make it even more important for sites to utilise social networking media in building and establishing their site's authority.

For more information on how this change could affect your site, and for help and advice on keeping up in the ever-changing search engine world, contact myDreamDesigns for a no-obligation chat about our SEO services.

November 13, 2009

mDD - Powering Paphos People!

Online discussion forums are one of the great meeting places of the 21st century, and myDreamDesigns are proud to be involved in the building, running, optimisation and maintenance of http://www.paphospeople.com/ - the liveliest online community in the Paphos area.

With well over 1000 members contributing to a site that enjoys over half a million page views every month, Paphos People is a fantastic online community, organising regular monthly nights out and other events to help residents and visitors to our region alike to meet up, make friends and network for business opportunities.

To join Paphos People, visit http://www.paphospeople.com/ppforum/ and sign up today!

myDreamDesigns are experts in the installation, configuration and maintenance of phpBB forum software - contact us if you need any help setting up or running your message board.

SEO Focus - Paphos Brides

A prime example of a site that as been built at some expense but is not performing to it's full potential, before myDreamDesigns got involved www.paphosbrides.com had some basic elements missing that were seriously impacting on its ability to attract visitors.

We built and published them an XML sitemap, tweaked and updated the meta data, acquired a few well positioned and relevant inbound links and did some resubmission work to help the search engines find the site and understand a bit better what it was all about.

A sprinkle of mDD magic and a short time later this Paphos wedding planning service is enjoying hundreds of monthly visitors from Google alone. Go search Google for a Paphos Wedding Planner and see for yourself.....

Do you have a site that just isn't performing? Get in touch with mDD today...

October 16, 2009

XML Feeds

Recent moves in the sharing of information across the internet has lead to a boom in XML feeds.

What's this we hear you cry? Well an XML feed is simply an easy way of making the public content on your website available to others for easy use.

In our recent work for a property sales company in Paphos we have created 2 XML feeds. The feeds output their property database in an XML format which other property websites can easily access in order to display their properties on a 3rd party website.

This how businesses easily share resources and information across websites.

Contact us if you think you could benefit from having your public data made available for easy sharing with other websites...

Thanks to you!

In nearly 5 years of designing and building websites in Paphos, Cyprus we have undertaken almost no advertising. Our little design business has grown purely by word of mouth and by one customer recommending us to the next one.

Each new project has a link to the previous one and it's been a fun journey so far.

Of course some of our customers do come across our website just by searching the internet. Try typing 'Paphos Web Design' into Google (.com or .co.uk) and you will find us percehd at the top. We do know a thing or 2 about search engine optimisation afer all.

So thanks for recommending us to your friends and family and we hope we can continue to help you.

myDreamDesigns

September 17, 2009

Portfolio Focus - The Property People

Combining a beautiful looking new web design with an existing property web application has taken The Property People into the property rental marketplace in Cyprus.
Short development time has been achieved through rapid design development and utilising an existing online propety system.
A built in Content Management System in the property system allows The Property People to manage the content on the static pages of the website as well as managing the rental properties across the site.

September 16, 2009

Company Blog - Ultra Properties

Another service available from myDreamDesigns, either as a standalone service or as part of an optimisation package, is the setting up of a blog for your company. As you can see from our own site, this can then be incoproated as a news feed into your own site Home/News pages to provide fresh regular content that will be a useful sight for both your customers and the search engine spiders.

The most recent blog we have set up is for Ultra Properties, a Paphos long term rental and property sales specialist, and can be found here: http://ultraproperties.blogspot.com/

Portfolio Focus - Profile Support Services

Another relatively recent addition to the myDreamDesigns portfolio can be found at www.profilesupportservices.co.uk

A site for a UK based office and home cleaning and maintenance contractor, the existing design was starting to look a little dated, and had also disappointed on the number of visitors being delivered.

The redesign is based on a simple html template, branded within the existing company colour scheme, and incorporating an updated logo that helps give a fresher look while remaining recognisable to existing customers.

Page names were maintained wherever possible to minimise disruption for the search engine spiders, while an overhaul of Meta tag data, use of an XML Sitemap submitted to Google via their excellent webmaster tools and some carefully cultivated inbound links have helped more than double visitor numbers in only a few months.

September 09, 2009

Portfolio Focus - Dive In Cyprus

Another recent site in the myDreamDesigns portfolio, www.dive-in.com.cy was a redesign of an already existing site which after a few years of operation was due an overhaul. Dive In is an island-wide operation, with dive centres in Paphos, Larnaca and Limassol.

Technology deployed in this project includes HTML, Javascript and mootools/Lightbox, and the result is a modern fresh design which remains in keeping with existing company corporate presence and branding.

This site already enjoys a strong search engine presence, supported by a high Google PageRank score, but myDreamDesigns have still been able to help increase visitor numbers to this site, helping consolidate the company's position as the number 1 choice for diving in Cyprus.

September 08, 2009

SEO Focus

At myDreamDesigns we always impress upon our customers the importance of having a site correctly built for search engine performance, and the benefits of ongoing optimisation for the long term success of a site.

The major search engines (for the uninitiated the "Big 3" are Google, Bing (formerly MSN search) and Yahoo, with Google being by far the most prominent) and it can take several weeks or even months to list and rank a new site, but at myDreamDesigns we're perfected the art of submission to get new sites listed quickly, and will generally have the main pages of a new site listed within a few days, and returning successful searches not long after.

For existing sites built elsewhere and not performing to their full potential, we have a series of tried and tested remedial actions that can quickly turn around a non-performing site.

I always equate having a site that isn't properly optimised to spending a fortune getting an expensive company brochure designed and printed then not bothering to distribute it - a complete waste of time!

For any advice or help with search engine optimisation, myDreamDesigns are always a decent first port of call.

New Site - Daisy Daisy Weddings

Another new addition to the myDreamDesigns portfolio - http://www.daisydaisyweddings.com/ is a simple custom designed HTML site for a new local wedding planning company here in Paphos.

Working with our graphic designer, the site specification was agreed and laid out in sample templates intially until the final design was agreed - a simple, clean look and feel was requested and the client is very happy with the final result.

As a new business, the importance of a professional web presence has been recognised, and the site will become an important part of this wedding planning service in Paphos.

The new site has been built as always with the search engines in mind, and having been live only a couple of weeks is already returning successful Google searches - fast-tracking new sites onto the major search engines being a particular speciality of myDreamDesigns.

Portfolio Focus - Replay Productions

One of the earlier sites in the myDreamDesigns portfolio, http://www.replayproductions.co.uk/ is a custom built site deploying HTML, PHP and mySQL technology.

Both the logo and site are custom designed and the site is also hosted on the myDreamDesigns custom server, with excellet levels of reliability.

As a primarily online business, specialising in cine film to dvd transfer technology, their website is a crucial part of the Replay Productions business, and accordingly enjoys high search engine positions for a number of its key terms, supported by search engine optimisation services also provided by myDreamDesigns.

September 07, 2009

Welcome to myDreamDesigns.com

Welcome to the Blog home of myDreamDesigns, specialising in website and graphic design, web development and hosting and search engine optimisation.

Based in Paphos, Cyprus but serving clients in the UK, across Europe and in North America.

Visit http://www.mydreamdesigns.com/ for more details on our products and services, and also to view a sample of our portfolio.