News | Web Development Articles from York web designers Semlyen IT

Cycling related websites are proving to be an excellent area of business for us. There are several in our portfolio already, and some more in the pipeline.

Last year we built a website for the York Festival of Cycling, and this was followed by a new site for Get Cycling, one of several projects run by the Company of Cyclists. Get Cycling is a community interest company which organises and promotes cycling events, bike try-out roadshows and cycling festivals all over the UK.

One offshoot of Get Cycling is now having its own website developed. Bikeboost is a scheme set up to promote and support cycling to and from work in urban areas. The first city to participate in the programme is Sheffield (one of the UK’s hilliest cities!) where 800 people will take up cycling to work. The scheme provides bike loans and support over a two year period, and will offer free cycle training in association with Sheffield cycling organisation Pedal Ready.

Our contribution to the project was a sophisticated bespoke (no pun intended) online system to manage the various BikeBoosts. Participants can register their interest and fill in an online questionnaire about their current commuting habits. People are selected to take part based on this information and the number of places available, and they are then given an account within the BikeBoost site.

Once admitted, participants can log into their account on the BikeBoost website and record their experiences and progress throughout the challenge, keeping track of the distances logged by themselves and their colleagues.

The online system makes it a whole lot easier to sign people up, loan them bikes, and find out how they’re doing. Reports on the facts and figures of the challenge are available at the click of a button.

Another project run by Company of Cyclists is Cyclorama, an enormous, multilingual online cycling resource which is still being developed. Cyclorama incorporates the online cycling magazine Bike Culture, which features a vast array of cycling articles and essays on practically every aspect of cycling imaginable. The site also serves as an exhibition space for specialist cycle designers, manufacturers and retailers. Each exhibitor has their own profile page, which contains a portfolio of their products and a blog.

Last month saw the launch of a website for the Big Bad Bike Ride, a sponsored charity bike ride which has been raising money to fund research into Friedreich’s ataxia since 1991. This site was set up to provide up-to-date news and information to participants, and to take online registrations and payments. Participants can also collect their sponsorship money online through Just Giving.

The next cycling-related website that we will be developing is Cycling City York, a project for the City of York Council which will promote York’s status as a Cycling City.

Bookmark this post:

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.

Bookmark this post:

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.
(more…)

Bookmark this post:

Very soon we’ll be launching a new site for fundraiser Graham Kennedy. Graham organises an annual sponsored bike ride to raise money for research into finding a cure for Friedreich’s Ataxia, and this year, in recognition of his fundraising work, he received an MBE in the New Year’s Honours.

Since 1991 the Big Bad Bike Ride has raised almost £600,000 for Ataxia UK, a charity which supports medical research into the causes and possible treatments of Friedreich’s Ataxia. The name ‘ataxia’ means ‘absence of order’, and people with the condition have problems with co-ordination which usually become progressively worse over time.

Graham started his fundraising campaign after his two children were diagnosed with the condition in 1990. His aim is to raise one million pounds for the charity, and, one ambition, he says, “to close York with a massive bike ride, similar to what happens in Cape Town every March when 36,000 take part.”

This year the Big Bad Bike Ride will take place near Pitlochry in the Scottish Highlands, on an undulating circuit of 75 miles. If previous years’ turn-outs are anything to go by, it should see over one hundred riders taking up the challenge.

Graham says the award is “a tribute to all the people who have helped me. Over the years, a lot of people, mainly from the York area, have been involved in the bike rides.”

The Big Bad Bike Ride website will be launched on 15th January 2010.

Bookmark this post:

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.

Bookmark this post: