]]> Before cashing in on the ‘you know what’s', check out the ‘you know whos’ official website for a note about use of their trademarks.

To prevent unauthorised exploitation of a brand that some advertisers have paid an arm and a leg for, there is a list of marks including words and logos that cannot be used in advertising. And remember, any infringement on the web is relatively easy to detect.

Ambush marketing

Particular attention is being directed towards any attempt at ambush marketing, where a business attempts to attach itself to the games (yes, we checked – they didn’t get ‘games’) without paying sponsorship fees. You might remember Bavaria Beer, who (successfully) ambushed the last World Cup with a stunt that brought the Dutch brand worldwide exposure.

Fortunately if you can’t wait to put the words ‘London’ and ’2012′ next to each other, you can do so after 31st December.

Need creative design ideas that aren’t going to land you in hot water?

We’ve written stacks of campaigns that keep everyone happy. Give us a call on Chester (01244) 566286.

]]> The final of the Chester & District Football League – sponsored by Roodee Web Design – came to a dramatic conclusion tonight at The Exacta Stadium, home of Chester FC.

Lache FC beat Shaftesbury Youth 3-2 to lift The Tom Gerraghty Memorial Trophy.

The last eight minutes were nothing short of superb, following 82 previous minutes that were lead by Lache. In the last eight drama-filled minutes Shaftesbury levelled twice before a penalty, taken by Callum Humphreys, saw Lache win with the last kick of the game.

The presentation for this tremendous game, was made by Simon Davies, Managing Director of Roodee Web Design and Simon Gerrard, Chief Executive Officer of the Cheshire County Football Association.

]]> On 24th April 2012, Google released a new algorithm change, called Penguin. It has done this to improve the results that show up in their SERP’s (Search Engine Results Pages) when a user types in a search term.

Some web site owners, design companies and SEO specialists – even on our doorstep here in Chester – had been trying so hard to get placed at the top of search results, they resorted to tricks that broke Google’s own Webmaster Rules. Websites that employed spammy techniques, where keywords were repeated over and over in pages (also known as keyword stuffing) have suffered falls as a result.

This has been devastating for businesses whose eggs were all in one basket as their sole source of traffic has gone up in smoke.

But it’s not all bad news. On the whole, high quality, well written sites with strong content should have benefitted from the update, rising upwards. Indeed, many websites that have had little or no SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) work carried out are outperforming others that have had lots of time and money spent on techniques that were dubious to say the least.

The Penguin update is the latest in a long line of algorithm changes. In fact, Google is constantly tweaking and changing things to ensure the results in searches are the best they can be. That’s their business.

Previous big updates were called ‘Panda’, ‘Farmer‘, and ‘Caffeine’. Each designed to penalise websites that tried to cheat the system.

So what can you do to rescue your website if it has dropped off Google?

It’s kind of obvious, but here’s what we recommend:

• Dump any spammy content and get rid of any keyword stuffing.
• Write new content for humans, not search engines.
• Steer clear of spamming blogs and forums.
• Don’t touch companies who post really poor, badly written and nonsensical articles on article websites with a barge pole.

Google Search Support In Chester

We’ll be more than happy to carry out an audit on your existing web site and fix any issues that we find. Give us a call today on 01244 566286.

]]> The new web design that we developed for Gardening Answers, a new gardening radio show on City Talk 105.9, has proved to be a big hit on Google and iTunes.

Visitors to the website can submit a question about any aspect of gardening that is then answered on air by gardening experts in garden centres in Liverpool, Chester, Wirral and  Merseyside. A podcast version of the show is uploaded via the website’s content management system, which is then automatically submitted to iTunes.

We had to go a bit further than integrating standard Google Analytics in order to track podcast downloads, and the data is showing the downloads are exceeding expectations, with the programme already achieving ‘featured podcast’ status (pictured below).

Search Engine Optimisation ensured the website can be found easily from the any of the terms used on air.

Want a website that does something special? Talk to us.

]]> Social Media ‘experts’ show you how to get lots of ‘Likes’ and ‘Followers’ with automatic tools and things, but when hundreds or even thousands of followers unanimously ignore daily sales announcements, most businesses give up. They see it all as a waste of time.

Consider the case of a bar/restaurant that we love here in our home town, next to Chester Cathedral. At the time of writing, The Rectory have 1500 friends* on Facebook.

Here’s a post from their wall, “The Rectory Bar & Restaurant fantastic home cooked British food made fresh with locally sourced produce, excellent service guaranteed an experience to remember. The Rectory, Chester’s hidden secret !! Mothers day freshly made roast £8.95 complimentary Belgian chocolates for mum on Mothers day. Book now on 01244-315528”

That post, and most of their others over the last month, got exactly ZERO comments / shares.

Here’s a photo of their pavement sign casually taken on the walk to a meeting in town and uploaded to one of our personal profiles – not our company page. On the bottom right, those seven shares you can see went on to share again and again. It was taken in a high-traffic area, so it’s fair to assume that others will have uploaded the same photo.

Could it be that the Rectory’s sign on the street in Chester will reach and engage more potential customers than their Facebook page*?

Which stands a better chance of being remembered; the photo or the Mothers Day message (if you’ve already forgotten about the Belgian chocolates offer, it’s in paragraph three, further up this page)?

* Yes, we know they’ve set up a profile instead of a page, but so what? It’s the pavement sign that is working on Facebook.

Roodee Web Design, Chester admire great ideas and spend all day (and sometimes night) thinking up new ones. See our portfolio or get in touch if you need help with ideas.

]]> It’s coming up to Easter time here in Chester, and already the same ‘eggceptionally’ old puns are hanging high on aisle ends and at point of sale.

The same old ideas and lines are regurgitated regularly in campaigns – not just in web design, but in print, email, on tv and everywhere else.

Fresh, clever and effective creative stands out a mile. Here’s some evidence.

The photos below were taken on a University Open Day in Leeds, where there seems to be no shortage of bright ideas for the student election campaigns.

Click a thumbnail to see the bigger picture.

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Here’s the new, rebuilt, redesigned website for Chester physiotherapist, Katie Copeland.

Katie’s physiotherapy clinic on Lower Bridge Street already had a website that was performing well on Google and had served her well for years.

Katie wanted a more contemporary look and feel for her site, new photos, and wanted to be able to give her team of physiotherapists the ability to update the website and a blog themselves.

All elements for the new web design were provided in-house here at Roodee including:

• A brand new design concept
• New coding
• A content management system for editing the website in-house
• Broadcast quality web video
• Search engine optimisation
• Website maintenance tutorials

Website Refresh

If your website is looking tired or not performing as well as it should be, talk to us about a website redesign. As in Katie’s case, we are able to reuse some of your original content and give it a new lease of life – for a lot less than a brand new website might cost. We are happy to quote or give advice. Call us today on Chester 01244 566286.

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A series of Wildlife courses and workshops on a nature reserve close to Chester commence in Spring and Summer 2012. We were tasked with designing and building a simple, brochure website to support them.

The site features stunning wildlife photos taken by ecologist, Julia Drage, Youtube videos taken at Church Stretton in the Cheshire countryside.

Users are able to book places on the half day and full day courses by making payment via Paypal buttons.

The website features an easy to use Content Management System, and it can be updated from pc’s and mobile phones.

Want a brochure website?

This is our favourite type of project and we can take care of every aspect of brochure website design. Call us for a quotation on Chester 01244 566285.

]]> We’ve just completed two new business videos for Cheshire radio station, Silk 106.9

Business Overview Video

The station overview video features Breakfast and Drive Time presenters Andy Bailey and Andy Clewes and was shot over the course of two days in and around Macclesfield, Chester, Jodrell Bank and Congleton. We were also given exclusive access to Macclesfield Town’s Football Stadium for a sequence that featured the station and club mascots.

Customer Testimonial Video

Perhaps one of the most powerful and persuasive of videos is the testimonial. This short sequence, that required our huge white screen and lots of lighting to bleach it out, was filmed in a spare office at the radio station’s base.

Want a quotation for corporate video?

Call us on 01244 566286 or use our contact form.

]]> Take a look at this. A great example of how to use a Facebook page properly. A customer of Burleydam Garden Centre (clients of ours) has lost a special offer voucher and asks how she is able to get a replacement.

Facebook is a great place to demonstrate great customer service and interaction like this can only heighten confidence in a business.

Integrating Facebook buttons into any web design is simple, easy and quick. For a quote or advice on Facebook integration, campaigns and general internet marketing, please call us on Chester (01244) 566286.