Orphan websites

26 July 2021
Websites, nobody loves them, nobody cares.

The majority of business websites are an orphan, and taken for granted. Everybody in a business knows there is one, but nobody ever seems responsible. A very simple poll we started awhile back seems to indicate lack of interest. Maybe everybody is just too busy, or dose not care.

Orphan websites are lost opportunities for everybody.

Websites cost money. To create, to host, to support and to promote. Many sites are "create and forget orphans". The business never knows how many customers have found a competitor or another solution. If an owner never asks, nobody will say anything, not their job. Corvid-19 is an excuse for doing nothing.

If nobody reads this post, it may confirm nobody cares. Sometimes we wonder why we bother promoting all the Northamptonshire businesses for free as well. But the…

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Are you a Photographer

11 July 2021
We would like to promote a local photographer

We are pleased to invite any local photographer with a website, to submit photographs of Northamptonshire for publication in this Directory. This is in addition to the free listing Northamptonshire photographers can create.

Why? Is possibly the first thought that springs to mind. We can easily purchase stock photographs from the many companies providing this service, such as Dreamtime and Pictures of England, but this is a local Directory for Northamptonshire, and we believe in keeping the Directory for local people, so that as many local businesses as possible can benefit.

What type of photograph?

We already have 6 photographers listed in the Directory, but would like to showcase more. The idea behind the request is to use photographs taken by a local photographer in this Directory with full ackn…

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Create and Forget marketing

1 July 2021
Free marketing is great value

Time is always limited for the business owner. Everybody needs to market their business, so that customers can find them online. Now there is Create and Forget marketing for every listing in the free local Northamptonshire Business Directory. We used a "forget me not" flower image. We will not forget your business either.

We take care of the marketing of all listings in the Directory. A local listing in a popular Directory is great value. This increases the chances of the main company website receiving more visitors. A qualified link from a recognised Directory, will always help boost the rankings of the main business website.

Not all Directories are created equal.

There are many types of Directories to join, many are not free. A typical business may join a number of Directories which suit the business requirements. B…

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Northamptonshire Directory Update

23 June 2021
Updates are taking longer.

We update this Directory often. Like many websites we are continuously making updates to resolve small problems, add improvements and generally keep the website up to date. We aim to keep the local Business Directory for Northamptonshire in top condition. If you see any problems please let us know.

This is a free local Directory offering an all inclusive free listing for every business based in Northamptonshire. To provide the very best service, we depend on local businesses making the effort to join. Many don't. Our updates benefit every business, so why is there not more members?

The value of a listing

Many small businesses are trying to survive during Covid-19 restrictions, and have no time or budget for business marketing and promotion, even if it is free. Making the effort to survive and prosper is great, survival i…

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Keeping Google happy.

11 June 2021
Why keeping Google happy is beneficial and profitable.

Keeping Google happy demands hard work and lots of time. What makes Google unhappy? Not enough changes to get excited about. Managing a business leaves little time to explore the fun of SEO. Search Engine Marketing. There is an old saying "United we stand, Divided we fall" ( or could be fail ), and that is true for most businesses. Going alone on the Internet is hard work, tough and requires specialised SEO knowledge.

Consider this. Maybe you manage a pub or own a B&B. Run a restaurant or organise childcare, the list is endless, but how do customers find the business online? By a search. All businesses should tell Google they exist, and what they do. Not just wait to be found. It is a tough world out there online.

There are Directories and there are useful Directories.

Any listing in a sui…

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Best tips to find local customers

15 May 2021
Who are my local customers, and where are they?

Where do online national and local customers come from? A simple question. For many businesses and organisations, this is very hard to answer. There are facilities to understand who and why people visit a website.

Listed in this free Northamptonshire Directory are a wide variety of businesses, and many different styles of websites. Having a website is only the first step in finding customers. Potential customers have to find the business website as well. For the smaller business owner or the manager of a local branch, this next step does not happen.

Business Promotion

Who takes care of the website? Unfortunately often the answer is nobody. It could be DIY, a website designer, in some cases a marketing company. There are steps even a small business can do to promote themselves and their website. …

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Getting lost in Google's blackhole

8 May 2021
A Google search is the most popular

Searching for a business name into Google may show anything from a few hundred to hundred of thousands of possible links. It also provides data on how many were found in the Google indexed database. Don't forget Google remembers all search history, and will always provide information it thinks people are looking for. More on search techniques here.

A Blackhole is a region of spacetime where gravity is so strong that nothing, such as light can escape from it. This is well known. What is not so well known is websites can also fall into Google's Blackhole, never to be found again.

Search using a different search engine

Successful searching depends on which search engine you use, and what you search for. Success depends on the business website using those keywords.

We recom…

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Protect your website from hackers

27 April 2021
Hackers hate Anti-virus and Malware software.

Never thought about Hackers before. For many years owning or managing a website was fairly simple. Nowadays with hackers using bots to spread malicious code, everybody is at risk. I know because it happened to this Directory.

Which is why I started exploring the possibilities of trying to prevent the Directory going down again. Thankfully my hosting companies uses Sucuri a high end solution for major users, as a final back-stop. Expensive for most, but what can a small company do?

This article concerns WordPress as the CMS

WordPress is the leading Content Management System for websites. It is free and there are literally thousands of free and paid opportunities for Themes and Plugins. A business owner needs to understand the basics behind the business website, and what to do if something goes wrong…

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You have new email

17 April 2021
Email: What you do next is important.

Every business uses email one way or another. The first important step for any business is to take security seriously, and install Anti-Virus and Malware software. See a description of the messaging service

The next step is to train the person responsible for opening emails in the correct procedures. Failure to take basic security seriously, will open the company to possible lasting damage, and loss of customer trust. An old saying "Trust is good, control is better".

Trust is vital

People need to trust that a business to take security seriously, this is very important. If your website starts with https:// that is a major requirement for building trust. Because it means communications to the website is more secure. An additional benefit is, Google will rank the business website higher in any search results.…

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