Tips and Tricks

Web design and development tips and tricks that can help improve your website. Common sense guidelines for websites.

  • Railway station signage

    How To Improve Your Website Navigation

    Website navigation is very important. If your website visitors cannot move round your site and find the information they are looking for, they will probably go to another site. Here are some tips for improving your website navigation.

  • Tablet PC showing website business listings and addresses

    Tell People Your Address

    It's important to show a physical address on your website. It makes sense to me to be open and honest about your location. Here's why.

  • Calendar with notebook and laptop

    New Year Resolutions for Your Website

    It's a new year! And it's a good time to make sure that your website is working optimally for you. Here are a few sensible things to do with your site (not just at this time of year, mind you!)

  • Toy stormtrooper next to laptop

    Does my website need an SSL certificate?

    Yes, it does! Read on to find out why you need an SSL certificate on your website.

  • A man looking at his watch and a smartphone

    Make your Website Faster. Trust me. Just do it!

    There are lots of reasons why it's a great idea to make your website faster. If you don't, it's probably losing you money! Here's what you can do.

  • Mac laptop and iMac on a desk

    Easy Website Backups

    It's important to have a website backup plan. And a process that makes it easy to create a backup. User errors, website hacks, or website updates that cause problems can be easily reversed if there is a backup in place. It's a bit like website insurance.

  • Clive Walker working on my own site

    Making it easy to update your site

    If you have the right website system, it's quick and easy to update your website. Want to know more? Read on.

  • Close-up of hands with a smartphone

    What Are AMP Pages and Why Do I Need Them?

    The Google Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) project is an open-source initiative to provide faster mobile web browsing. The project was announced by Google in October last year. Why do I need it, and what should I do?

  • iMac screen with website code

    How To Check Your Site for Broken Links

    Nobody likes clicking on a link to find that it goes to a missing page. And Google doesn't like it either! So, it's a good idea to run a regular site audit (I suggest monthly) to check for broken links. Here are four tools that will help you do that.

  • Paraglider landing on a beach

    An Introduction to Landing Pages

    A landing page is where you expect users to enter your site. These pages have a single, specific objective and there are two types. Read on if you want to know more.

  • Laptop, blank writing pad, hands about to write

    Getting help with website content

    Creating website content needn't be difficult. Here are two ways of getting help to create more, and better, website content. Sound good? Read on ...

  • Computers

    Make sure you have a website backup

    You may assume that your website has a backup - but does it? You need to have a backup plan for your site. Here are some ways of doing that.

  • How I plan and create my email newsletter

    I started a Website Tips and Tricks email newsletter in February. The newsletter's aim is to pass on a few pointers that will help improve a website. And to highlight some of my work. I've enjoyed creating the newsletter and this is my process for getting it done.

  • Hands typing on a keyboard

    How to Write More Blog Posts

    Have you forgotten when you last updated your website? Are you finding it tough to write regular blog posts? Read on for my tips that will help you blog more.

  • Computer screen showing website visitor graph

    Every website needs love and attention

    It's true that you cannot expect to get much from your website if you ignore it. And why would you? After all, you have spent good money hiring a web designer in the first place, why launch the site and leave it idle?

  • Someone using an iPad

    Why you should check your website visitor statistics

    I had a meeting with a client last week where we discussed a potential website redesign. We checked website visitor statistics to see how many visitors used mobile devices. Higher than expected!

  • Optimise images for better search engine rankings

    It's important to name and describe images on your website as accurately as possible because this will help Google and other search engines understand the images and use them in search rankings.

  • Quick Tip: Helping reduce comment form spam

    We all know that contact forms on websites can attract a degree of spam comments but these can be minimised with a few simple measures.

  • Improving ecommerce sales with product reviews

    In Three Tips for Improving Your Ecommerce Sales, I suggested adding customer reviews to your site. To follow up on this, I came across an article recently that described how a customer review widget increased ecommerce sales by 36%.

  • Laptops, hands and notepad with writing

    How to review your website content

    I've written a couple of posts about adding content to your website, for example Four Reasons why you Must Update Your Website and Ideas for Updating Your Website, but it's equally important to take stock and review your website content regularly.

  • Three tips to improve your online sales

    Ecommerce is hard work and it's tough to make significant sums of money by selling products online. This post is about making a few changes to your ecommerce website that will, hopefully, improve sales

  • Make sure that your website software is up to date

    We've come across a few sites recently where the website content management system hadn't been updated for months. Here's why it is important to ensure that your website's software is updated regularly.

  • Working with WordPress

    CVW Web Design has been doing more work with WordPress recently. Here is some advice about choosing WordPress and working with it on your website.

  • Speedometer dial

    Why Website Speed Matters

    We've been optimising this website recently and making it as fast as we can. Without going into the technical aspects of how we do this, let's ask the question. Why does website speed matter?

  • Working with a laptop

    Ideas for updating your website

    In the last post, we described Four Reasons Why You Must Update Your Website. Following on from that, here are some ideas about how you can make regular updates to your site.

  • Four reasons why you must update your website

    We see plenty of websites that are not updated very often and it's incredibly easy to fall into this situation. However, it's very important that you regularly update your website for several reasons.

  • A quick tip to improve your search engine rankings

    We get asked a lot about search engine positions and how to improve them but there's one quick tip that we always give. Read on to find out out more!

  • What company information do we need on our website?

    You need to include certain information about your company on your website; it's a legal requirement in the UK and it makes good business sense.

  • How to get help with your website from Google

    Many business owners come to CVW Web Design asking for help with their current websites. And one of the most common questions is 'How can I get better search engine positions'?