Web Development Articles from York web designers Semlyen IT

Andrew’s Golf

This new e-commerce site sells a variety of golfing products – instructional golf books, golf accessories and golf gifts. It also features additional online golf resources such as advice, videos and a readers’ forum.

The site was designed in partnership with Mode, and coded by Semlyen IT. The shopping cart is powered by Mal’s e-commerce. The site will be launched very soon.

Mobile Shredding Company

The Mobile Shredding Company specialises in shredding confidential waste using environmentally friendly methods. The shredded paper is taken to a nearby recycling centre once the documents have been destroyed, and this is always included as part of their paper shredding service.

They also shred various other materials as well as paper: their shredding portfolio includes interview audio tapes, floppy disks, computer back up tapes, CDs and DVDs, magnetic media, USB Memory sticks, uniforms, security passes, credit and loyalty cards.

This brochure site was designed by Bivouac Design Solutions and coded at Semlyen IT. Its SEO treatment included keyword and keyphrase research into the many different variants of ‘paper shredding services’ that people might search for – it could be ‘paper shredders’ or ‘paper shredding’, to start with – and then there’s ‘confidential waste shredders‘ or ’shredding’ or even ‘confidential waste disposal‘ or ‘confidential waste destruction‘.

With a small site it’s hard to cover every possible variation. The site has therefore been optimised for phrases that receive reasonably high search volumes, but not necessarily those that receive the highest, as these are usually more both competitive and more generic.

For example, a search for ‘paper shredders’ on Google will produce pages selling paper shredding devices in addition to people offering paper shredding services. Even though ‘paper shredders’ is a more common search term than ‘paper shredding services’, it’s better to be more specific and optimise for the latter. This increases the likelihood of a page one Google position as there is less competition. It also means that people who find the site are likely to be searching for paper shredding services rather than a shredding device, and therefore should generate a higher percentage of actual customers from the search traffic that reaches the site.

Brassed On!

A new site sponsored, designed and coded by Semlyen IT, featuring a logo created by Caroline from Royal Fireworks Press (whose site we also manage). The site is powered by Wordpress.

Brassed On! is York’s Brass Band Festival, inspired by the film Brassed Off. It will feature all five of York’s brass bands, plus a young people’s masterclass led by members of the Grimethorpe Colliery Band. The festival takes place on 2nd – 3rd May.

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Since the end of last year we’ve been working on five new sites for doctors’ surgeries and medical centres, all of which have commissioned our document management system for intranets. All of the sites use Snippetmaster Pro for their content management.

Here you can see York Health Group’s intranet document management system:

The system also has a calendar feature:

The sites were designed by Doug James of Mode. Doug was initially approached by the clients for logos, branding and website redesign. After a successful collaboration developing York Photographer Greg McGee’s website in early 2009 Mode and Semlyen IT have worked in partnership on several projects including these websites for Medical Practices.

Haxby Group Hull’s new website went live last year, and since the beginning of this year we’ve also launched redesigned sites for York Medical Group and York Health Group, plus a brand new site for Tadcaster Medical Centre which previously did not have a website at all. The next to be launched is the Haxby Group’s main website (separate from its Hull division).

York Medical Group has practices in Acomb, Monkgate, Woodthorpe and at St. John’s University. The new site has a separate students’ section for patients at the University. This site also includes a Travel Health Questionnaire.
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York interior designer Tricia Douglas is extending her established bespoke interior design service to include two new strands: a furnishing service providing furniture packs for landlords and show homes, and an online shop selling designer furniture, gifts and accessories. Tricia’s original interior design site was launched earlier this year, and has been closely followed by two new sites for her specialist services.

Instant Interiors is Tricia’s furniture package service, aimed at landlords, letting agents and show homes. Tricia provides interior design packs for people who need to furnish properties attractively, quickly and to a limited budget, such as landlords who want to let their properties to tenants rather than leave them standing empty. Equipping the property with good value, co-ordinated and robust furniture has proven more conducive to successfully letting a property than filling it with old, mismatched hand-me-downs. Tricia’s experience both as a landlord and an interior designer has led her to develop this fast-track furnishing service.

Tricia’s online shop, Lifestyle Store, is her newest venture, and was launched a few weeks ago. The shop stocks designer furniture, gifts and accessories, and in particular it features three collections of furniture and home accessories – Islington, Notting Hill and Knightsbridge.

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Jollydays Luxury Camping had a successful year marked by the receipt of the York Press New Business of the Year Award. The award was presented to Jollydays founders Christian and Carolyn Van Outersterp by Ron Godfrey, business editor of the Press, at a ceremony earlier this month.

After a fully booked summer, Jollydays are planning to expand deeper into the woodland, with potential for thirty additional tents equipped with even more luxurious features such as a four poster bed, vintage roll-top baths and flushing toilets.

Another York Press award, the Science and Technology Business of the Year award, saw another of our clients, Applied Web Analytics, as one of two runners up. Applied Web Analytics was launched in March this year by Dan Croxen-John, and the company’s website was given SEO treatment by Semlyen IT.

In yet another award category, Michael Hjort  – whose various websites are hosted by Semlyen IT – was a finalist in the Business Personality of the Year.  Michael owns Melton’s restaurant and Melton’s Too café bar, and is also director of York Food Festival.

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Several of our clients have made appearances in the national media over the past few weeks – in an article entitled ‘York’s top 10 budget eats‘ in the Guardian, Melton’s Too (whose restaurant sites, and various other endeavours such as York Food Festival, are hosted by Semlyen IT) appeared at the top of list. Also featured in the article was Le Langhe, whose Italian cafe and delicatessen has recently expanded to a full restaurant. Le Langhe’s site was redesigned in order to incorporate information about the restaurant, and a variety of new products have been added to their online Italian food shop.

Jollydays Luxury Camping enjoyed a sudden swell in their number of Facebook fans after a BBC television appearance on Alexander Armstrong’s Very British Holiday. The programme explored a variety of different holiday experiences within the UK as an alternative to overseas travel, highlighting the fact that a British holiday does not necessarily have to mean visiting a traditional seaside tourist trap in the rain. The footage of peaceful woodland and comfortable accommodation drew over one hundred new fans to the Facebook page, and undoubtedly raised public awareness of the concept of ‘glamping’!

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