If your business has a website of any kind there is always a threat of the site becoming vulnerable and falling victim to attacking by hackers. Particularly if your website uses a content management system (CMS) such as WordPress, Joomla or a custom program that has been added to a normal website which enables a website administrator to login to the site and make changes to the content.

While there isn't a problem with CMS on websites, they can become vulnerable with age and lack of regular updating and maintenance. This is particularly problematic with the larger CMS platforms such as WordPress where there can be many third party add-ons installed into the program to do various functions. These add-ons can become vulnerable over time and then exploited to find loopholes into the website for unauthorised access.

In our history of being the largest website hosting company in the region we have seen a lot of case studies of these type of attacks. They can range from content of the website being attacked and used to market a different service or product, content being changed to assist a third party site search engine ranking, hijacking of email accounts that are used to send masses of unsolicited junk emails and even complete destruction of the website requiring an expensive backup restoration.

For this reason we recommend that any website owner who has some form of access to manage the content of their website (Particularly WordPress site owners) do a regular review of all of the components of the website to ensure it is up to date and secure.

If you have a website that you would like us to look at on your behalf we can help. Simply contact our office direct and we can arrange a review for you.

We are now coming up to our first year asthe recognised Google Partner in Cairns & Townsville and we are extremelyimpressed with the results we have been able to bring to our clients throughsuccessful Google marketing.

With continued Google support and training,along with valuable insights into the information that the largest onlinemarketing agency in the world can provide, we have been able to successfullyestablish strong inroads into designing marketing campaigns for any budgets.

We currently manage over 150 Google SEMaccounts and these range in budget from $3,000 per year to some bigger nationalaccounts who are spending well over $2million per year. All of these are localbusinesses who are entrusting Allcorp to successfully handle their campaignsand manage their accounts properly.
The proof has been significant with seriousgrowth in our adoption of new Google SEM clients over the latter half of 2016where public perception towards Google AdWords and other associated marketingalong with enhanced trust in both the Allcorp and Google brands has seen aspike in the number of incoming projects in this area.

So much growth has happened in this sectorthat we have had to rapidly expand with more staff and bigger offices to bestserve our clients requirements – Whether it be for online marketing or our corewebsite design services.

The best news is that we are a 100% locallyowned NQ business who look after the requirements of other local businesses.This means that your business can deal with a local company on a face to facebasis without having to approach a Sydney or Melbourne firm for the sameservices. Because all Google Partners receive the identical levels of trainingand support you can only benefit with a friendlier and personalised localservice such as we can provide.

So as we approach our 1st yearas the region’s Google Partner, and heading into our 17th year asthe region’s leading website design studio, we still maintain our commitment tolocal business. By providing the most cutting edge online marketing and websitedesign strategies that are available to all businesses, small or large, withlimited budgets or high, we can provide valuable services that will bringresults.

Last month we made the decision to only produce fully responsive website designs to keep our projects up to date with the current expectations of both technology and Google expectations.

With more than 6 responsive designs underway already we have been tracking their progress with Google ranking to gain some data on how this switch in design trend has affected their standings. It appears that there has been some significant improvements in only a short time with benefits of increased exposure being seen in only just a short time.

What we have found in the past is that early adopters often get the most exposure when it comes to how Google rank a website. With the looming normalcy of 4K & 5K displays creeping in (You can't even buy a Mac these days that isn't a 5K display) it is good to see that those clients who have embraced the Ultra High Definition medium with their websites are finding huge benefit.

We did some research by speaking to some contacts at one of the local major electronics retailers here in Cairns and were notified that overall sales of 4K & 5K displays compared to the old HD 1080 displays accounted for over 80% of the total units shifted in the last month.

This means that more and more people will be using 4K & 5K displays to view your website, after all who would choose to invest in old technology when presented with the new? This is where responsive design really comes into effect. Not only will the website look good on the old fashioned 1080 displays that most of us are running out at the moment, but a responsive site will also look good on a tablet or a phone and up to the 4K & 5K displays as well.

Not only do you get a website that suits all current users needs, you are also protecting your investment for the future having it 4K & 5K ready as well as appealing to the technological expectations of Google - which, as we've already seen with the first 4K & 5K responsive sites, is a beneficial thing.

Making your website 4K & 5K friendly isn't hard with our responsive design philosophy. Contact us today and let us help you get a website presence that is cutting edge and maximises your return on investment with high levels of conversions from views.

Allcorp continues to expand our team as we are keeping up with the increased demand on our services and to provide high levels of customer service and client focus. Joining with Danielle Torcetti from last month and completing our customer development team, Scott has the main focus of developing existing clients as well as attracting new relationships with businesses throughout the region.

Coming from an extensive career in customer service and client development, we're confident that Scott will be able to help us to assist clients to get the most out of the internet medium and Google marketing. As the Google Partners in the region and with Google being the most important marketing asset available to any business it's good that we have a team who can now ensure we are getting the correct information into the marketplace to assist local businesses.

Scott can be contacted on 0419 899 757 or scott@allcorp.net.au

Danielle joined our company with the sole responsibility to manage our Google SEM clientele and to cultivate new SEM clients throughout the region. Danielle has a strong customer service background and has undergone extensive in house Google training to best manage our SEM clients’ advertising campaigns.

Danielle is a very customer service focussed team member and will be ensuring all of our Google SEM campaign and website clients receive the outstanding levels of service that Allcorp prides itself on delivering.

A responsive website is one that will automatically rearrange itself to fit the screen environment it is being displayed on. This means 1 website design will work on desktop computers, tablets, laptops and mobile phones without separate device specific versions of the website being served.

The need to have a responsive website has become extremely important and it has been building up to a stage where it is now considered mandatory. Through our recent discussions and meetings with Google we have also found that Google themselves do prefer responsive websites for their ranking and indexing standards.

Because we want to continue to produce the best possible product for our clients we recommend that everyone have a responsive website in place. All new Allcorp projects will push the need for a responsive website design and we encourage all existing clients who have a website that is potentially getting a bit old to discuss their options with one of our consultants.

By having your website fully responsive you are ensuring you are giving the best possible user experience to your clientele and making it so that the information contained within your website is explorable to users with any device.

Having only one website that fits all devices also means that the problem with having to keep 2 website designs synchronised together is no longer a problem and having only a single website as opposed to a dedicated mobile website will also ensure Google aren't seeing duplicate content when they crawl through. Duplicate content is something that produces a negative score on website ranking in search engines, so it is a good thing to try and avoid.

The 2015/2016 financial year has ended and we have been, as usual, busier than ever. This financial year Allcorp made some significant steps forward in our own repertoire of services that we can use to help our clients get the most out of the all important industry of online marketing. We have become a certified Google Partner - something that we are the only local website design business in the region to have as an accreditation for.

Becoming a Google Partner has allowed us to better serve our clients needs and we are currently managing over 200 Google SEM campaigns for our clients. While providing these services we have seen a huge impact on the advertising clients with many testimonials of the great assistance it has given them in returns on their investments. Most clients have even dropped their other forms of low-tech marketing and focused entirely on the Google campaigns we are running in combination with the great websites that accompany them.

Our core business has always been in website design and there's no point having the greatest reach in Google marketing and not having a website that contains excellent selling messages and call-to-action marketing input to maximise the conversion rate of potential customers.

We have gained a very strong reputation of producing the best websites in the region and this last financial year we were responsible for designing and publishing more than 100 new website presences for local businesses.

So we've had a good year. We've expanded our business with more staff now than at any other point in our 16 year history and we are actively recruiting new staff for the very near future to further expand and help more businesses get the best opportunity to attract extra business.

We hope all of our clients have also experienced a great financial year and look forward to working with everyone for the future.

As most will now know, any small business with a turnover less than $2,000,000 per annum are able to purchase assets up to a maximum of $20,000 and receive an immediate write-off of the value rather than having to depreciate the expense over a number of years. This means if you get your new website this month you can immediately claim the expense in its entirety which should make tax time a more exciting proposition. (OK, well nothing really makes tax time exciting, but you get what we mean.)

In addition to the above benefit, the same assets as mentioned above (your new website and Google marketing campaign all packaged and underway well before the EOFY for instance) can still go into the depreciation pool and be depreciated at 15% in the first income year and 30% thereafter. So it's like a double benefit and something that probably won't come around too often.

To help you get the most out of this benefit we have scheduled additional overtime hours right throughout the month of June in expectation of the higher volume of projects coming in from clients who want to take advantage of this offer. This means we are able to get projects completed and paid for in total before June 30th so you can get that all important tax invoice to make the claim.

With this offer possibly not being repeated again it has never been a better time to take it right now. Have a chat with your accountant and make sure it is right for you then talk to us quickly so we can get your project booked in and underway so you can meet the deadline.

If you are currently undertaking a non-internet based marketing campaign such as television, radio or newspaper marketing and want a great way of squeezing the biggest amount of value from the money you are spending why not talk to us about running a parallel Google campaign?

Our research and insights into internet traffic have shown increases in Google search traffic for keywords relevant to a particular business from our region in and around the period that particular business was running an advertising campaign.

For example, if a builder in Townsville is currently doing a mixed campaign of newspaper advertising and television spots our case studies (in assistance with our Google resources as the only Google Partners in the region) show there is an influx of people who do searches for that builder’s name. Our studies into this show that when your television or radio advertisement are playing they may be subliminally heard by the viewer. (They are mostly in the other room when the ads come on anyway).If this viewer is actually interested in appointing a builder they use their recall later to Google the business name they heard on the radio or television.

If there is a parallel Google campaign running it will assist to further catch this market and then drive them to a particular page or section in your website that reiterates the advertising campaign that is being broadcast.

Better yet, if you notice that a competitor of yours is running a marketing campaign in the newspaper, television or radio you can reach the audience they have spent thousands of dollars attracting the attention of by re-marketing your own business in a parallel Google marketing campaign. This way you still catch the high percentage of recall searches from the campaign but you can avoid the entire campaign cost to begin with.

With our Google Partner services and our team's abilities to prepare marketing material effectively we can ensure that there are sufficient selling messages in your Google advertising to target these people and maximise their chances of being a contactable lead. With our Google campaigns starting at as little as $250 per month you could be spending your advertising money in a much smarter method and benefitting from an even bigger footprint into your market.

Adaptive websites have been around for a few years now and they have been the bane of the designers realm for the entire time they have been here. An adaptive website - a website that adapts its size to suit the screen it is being viewed on - is a way of making a single website suit a variety of screen sizes. These are mainly used to appease people looking at websites on mobile phones.

Adaptive websites are mostly used by 'non designer' website developers. As we have discussed previously, the realm of website production is split between the non-creatives (those who use WordPress and other such template website programs) and the creatives - professional designers, such as Allcorp, creating everything from scratch.

But I guess you're asking why having a website work properly on a mobile phone is a bad thing, right? The answer is it's a good thing. A great thing even. Considering that a lot of website traffic comes from mobile phones and even Google set out strict protocols to diminish the ranking of websites that aren't mobile compatible last year, having a website that is mobile device compliant is crucial.

As designers though, being constrained by the simplicity of adaptive websites is what frustrates. In order for a website to be able to transform its proportions to fit any device screen size the design must be extremely simple. Using adaptive website framework means that the freedom to be creative and to think outside of the box is greatly diminished. Then you get a website that is the same as the next template website. No thought or creative intent has gone into the overall design. For this reason we choose to make our websites mobile compliant by designing separate mobile website versions. This way we remain website compliant and aren't limiting the design quality of our creative department.

It must be working because no other website design business in the region has more recognised projects or more design accolades than Allcorp projects. Let us work with you in designing your website presence from the ground up - making something that is unique and identifiable as something that is your business and not some 'paint-by-numbers' clone site like the others all do.

If you are unsure of whether you have this setup or not simply do a Google search for your business and look to the right hand side of the results. If you do have the listing in place you will see some information about your business displayed similar to the below graphic.

If you are one of our SEO or SEM Google marketing clients then you already have this setup and managed by us. If you see the listing there and are unsure of how it got there it is possible that someone else may have set this up on your behalf.

Check through the details that are on the listing and make sure they are valid and current. Also ensure that everything is activated such as reviews, links to your website, business contact details and opening hours.

Having this listing correctly setup will ensure you are doing everything right to Google standards and have the best chance of having your website successfully indexed in searches. It will also get your business on Google Maps - We heard that a phone book company was giving clients inaccurate information about them being responsible for where Google get their map listings which was not surprising.

If you would like assistance to set up your Google My Business or Google Maps listing please contact us today.

If you need help to reclaim control of a Google My Business or Google Maps listing just let us know - As your local Google Partner we are able to help you get the most out of this service and ensure you are doing everything right to keep your business ranking in Google searches.

When we started our business 16 years ago the website design industry was awash with new, creative, startup marketing companies with vibrant, energetic and talented graphic designers, marketing executives and website developers, working together as a team to generate class leading websites that were efficient and unique marketing tools.

With the advent of the DIY website and template driven content management system providers all of a sudden the industry became cheap. The professionalism was gone and each year a new website maker would emerge from their spare bedroom office to proclaim that they were the right website designer for the job. Being just a one-person show, a fly-by-nighter, when they weren't stacking the shelves at Coles, these individuals used every tool in their arsenal of whatever library of template designs they had purchased, to slap cheap websites together for unsuspecting businesses.

Unfortunately, now, in our region, these type of website designers tend to make up the majority. We have many clients who approach us with disdain that their template website maker hasn't returned their phone calls or emails for days (Probably because they can't take personal calls when they are doing their Coles shift), the website is malfunctioning and it looks like it has been hijacked by someone selling pharmaceuticals. That's when they find that their website maker got promoted to assistant manager at their supermarket and because of their long hours they can't maintain your website properly, nor can they provide any level of customer service.

When these clients come to our office and see the scope of how a real website design company works they gather a greater understanding of what you really get for your money when choosing the services of a professional website design company.

Instead of being just one person who wears many hats with varying degrees of competence, Allcorp employs professionals in niche areas of expertise to work on all projects. From the Account Manager, to the Creative Team and then onto the Website Developers. When it's all up and running the website goes to the Google Marketing Division who look after the Search Engine Optimisation and Search Engine Marketing services. There’s a lot of people involved to get the job done right, but the job IS done right and that's why we have more clients than any other website design business in our region, have been operating for a longer period and have more testimonials from satisfied clients than any other.

At Allcorp you deal with a team of people who will make sure you get the Rolex website your business deserves and something you can be proud of.