2012 has been a year where everything seemed to change for business advertising and marketing. Allcorp have developed new products and services to cater to the needs of our clients with these quickly changing trends and have been so busy throughout this year that it's hard to believe it's already Christmas time.

To think that just last year most of our clients were putting the finishing touches on their yellow pages advertisement and this year no one seems to be doing this anymore is evidence that in just 1 year things can change so quickly. With the discussions and meetings we have had with our client base - some 500 local North Queensland businesses from The Burdekin, North to Townsville and Ingham, West To Mount Isa, up to Cairns, the Tablelands and the Cape - it is a common thread that the majority have dropped or significantly reduced the size and spend of their phone book advertising.

Other changes include the need for all businesses to have a mobile device friendly version of their website so that their customers can view the website on a smaller screened device. 3 or 4 years ago this wasn't necessary. 3 or 4 years ago most phones wouldn't have been able to do this. Now, according to Google, 1 in 5 internet searches are being made using a mobile device and this number is growing every day.

Using our own website as an example in November this year we had just under 5,000 visits to the website. Of these visits just under 1,500 people were doing so on an Android or iOS operating system - the operating systems used in smart phones and tablets. Obviously the need for businesses to have websites that display properly on these smaller devices has become essential. They are a standard part of all of our new website proposals and quotes and we have been receiving a lot of orders from our current client base to add these to their online presence.

Other things that have dramatically altered the way people do business and how businesses advertise and market is in the way people find and research products and services in which they are interested. More than ever before people are relying on search engines to do this and businesses know that they must be found effectively where their potential clients and customers are searching.

All of these changes have kept us very busy for 2012 and it can only be expected that 2013 is going to bring some new and exciting changes as well. All we know is that in our 13 years as the leaders in website development and internet marketing in North Queensland we have never seen it change as quickly as it has in 2012.

In previous newsletters we have discussed the importance of making awebsite function properly on mobile devices such as smart phones andtablets. This was verified with the latest figures from Google thatshowed 40% of website traffic is using these devices to view websites,with internal Google predictions estimating this to rise to 60% in thecoming 12 months.

While all Allcorp websites are designed properly and look great on a computer screen it might be wise to think about developing a scaled down version of the website to work exclusively on the smaller screens of smartphones and tablets. We have developed our own internalsoftware that enables our server to determine what type of device aperson is using to access your website and then automatically serve thecorrect version of the website.

This means if you look at one of our mobile device websites with an iPhone for example our server will show you the iPhone version of the website. This usually means bigger text sizes, clickable phone numbers for direct calling and optimised graphics to suit the size and aspect ratio of the phone screen.

Below are some examples of mobile device friendly websites we have developed in the past few weeks. These website versions aren't that expensive and are another example of where all businesses should beheading. If you would like any information on our mobile device friendly websites please contact us direct and we can discuss the importance of this in further detail.

As you will recall from previous newsletetrs and discussions with the Allcorp team, we have been avidly investigating effective ways to perform search engine optimisation se rvices for our clients throughout the course of the year.

Since commencement of these services in January we have seen a significant increase in both minimising the time it takes to perform the SEO process along with improving results achieved. We have also streamlined the services offered in the SEO package to optimise the value for our client ensuring their investment is secured.

The standard SEO package with Allcorp is contractually bound so that our client doesn't pay the full price quoted until we have achieved the results we outlined in the agreement. This means that if we can't get clients the results they don't have to pay their final bill.

This, accompanied by the targeted tracking of searches performed by Google and other search engine users, has resulted in many success stories to businesses who have embraced the age and realised the importance of internet marketing as the most formidable resource available to any business today.

In the attached image there are some of our SEO clients and results that have been recently achieved.

When studying the number of Google keyword searches every month as displayed in the table it is important to keep in mind that this number represents an extremely highly quantified potential customer base. People don't search for something in Google unless they have an interest in it. So what we effectively have achieved by performing a targeted marketing exercise to capture the interest of these people is located the most exclusive pool of possible clients and marketed to them directly. This reduces the amount of advertising waste that is so prevalent in other forms of advertising such as phone books, television, radio and print advertising where the overall cost carries a lot of waste when adding the numbers of people who see the advertisement and whom have little or no interest in the company's service or product.

Once we have achieved the SEO results we have a maintenance package from as little as $550.00 per year that will ensure the keyword results are retained. Compare this cost to the other types of marketing your business does every year and see how economical successful advertising has become.

If you would like more case studies of successful SEO projects or if you would like more information on how to cut down your advertising waste and successfully market your business contact us today. We are the leaders in North Queensland for website development and marketing and can help save your business thousands of dollars in advertising waste and achieve a better market exposure.

It seems many businesses in North Queensland are waking up to the fact that the yellow paged phone book (And other similar books) cost too much money every year and maybe represent an area where savings can be made. When all of the clients we have spoken to this year on this topic have been questioned on whether they feel they receive extra customers from spending big on an $8,000.00 phone book advertisement they all came to the conclusion that it was an out dated and old fashioned advertising medium. It was interesting to note that many suggested that they only kept pursuing advertising within its pages due to regularity.

When you really stop and think about it what cost does your business throw at a phone book every year? Do you think that anybody uses them anymore?

With the internet now streaming into our everyday lives 24/7 where we can't even go to the shop for a cup of coffee without taking our smartphones or tablets along for the ride we are becoming more and more accustomed to expecting the internet to be available all of the time. This means that with this expectation when we want to find a business we are using the internet medium.

Why reach for a cumbersome phone book to find the contact information of your nearest motor mechanic when it's easier, faster and more convenient to just Google 'Townsville Mechanic' or 'Cairns Auto Repairs?'. We are all realising this has become the norm and is only going to become more so.

Maybe 15 years ago, maybe only 5 years ago, we could all rely on the fact that our potential customers were using their phone books to find businesses but now it is a quickly changing story. This is especially made evident in the fact that the publishers of the Yellow Pages books seem to be having trouble selling the pages and even after resorting to slimming down the dimensions of the book (and still charging the same if not more for a half page ad). Even with their smaller book it is full of grey filler lines on almost every page and many house ads to fill up unsold space. Even the people producing it seem to have lost interest.

If we think about what our part of the world will be like in as short a time as 3 years can any of us still see big yellow phone directories on every desk? At Allcorp we haven't had the phone book in our offices for 10 years and when asked we weren't surprised to find our staff don't have it in their homes either.

So what about the businesses that aren't found when people search for 'Townsville Mechanic' or 'Cairns Auto Repairs', or anything else for that matter? Wouldn't this be just like a business who didn't have their contact details in the yellow paged phone book 15 years ago? Not found?

It is important for all businesses to embrace this as the expected way of advertising simply because it is the consumers' expected way of finding business. The good news is that taking the hypothetical but scarily realistic $8,000.00 phone book advertisement spend we can divide that number by 4 or even 5 and reach the market in a much more effective and targeted way.

If you've been thinking about how much money your business has been throwing away every year on an old fashioned and dying advertising medium talk to us about how our website design, social media marketing and search engine optimisation services can get your business greater exposure for less money than any of the old fashioned advertising trends. It is already a decision that consumers have made and the clever business strategy would naturally meet their market.

Well it is certain that your competitors may not like it so much. After all, this new marketing has closed the gap between cities so much that it has also brought in new competitors. Where we were previously competing with the people in our city or town alone we are now competing with every other business in the whole region. But is it reallywise to not advertise and compete on this new playing field? Do you really think your competitors won't be or aren't already throwing their hat in the ring and starting their own high impact campaign in this new market economy?

The time to start drawing up your own marketing territory is now and at Allcorp we have more experience than any other local web development and marketing company to help you take what's yours competitively and fairly.

If you want to talk about expanding your advertising footprint into into these new environments or even just increase the exposure you have in your own city or town contact us today for an obligation free chat about what we can do to help you.

In the last few months we have been rolling out lots of new products to better assist our clients benefit from their internet marketing strategies.

Now that the internet medium is taking a foothold as the most important part of any businesses advertising and marketing it is becoming more important for everyone to keep pace with how the industry is changing. The latest surveys conducted by non media affiliated panels consistently suggest that people are using the internet medium to make their buying decisions more than ever.

This opens up a whole new world of targeted advertising. Gone are the days when a business simply advertised in blanket fashion to thousands of people in a newspaper, television or radio spot. This is old fashioned thinking. If you are a builder and advertised in the Townsville Bulletin or The Cairns Post, for example, you will be reaching many thousands of people with your ad. Most of this is lost in advertising wastage as only a very small percentage of those thousands of people are actually interested in the services offered by this hypothetical builder.

New market trends and the people that are consistently using them indicate that your advertising money can go miles further with more targeted advertising to the people who actually want your product.

Our new services have opened doors to many of our clients and they have been able to shave off advertising wastage by advertising to the people who are much higher as potential customers and clients. Instead of targeting 100,000 people who don't want to build a house our builder can now target the 2,000 people who have expressed interest or are currently interested in building a house. This not only saves money but also makes advertising as effective as it possibly can be.

Our Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and Search Engine Marketing (SEM) services are testament to the success that a business can have by advertising smarter. Contact us today for some case studies of real world North Queensland clients we have helped achieve real results from these services. Cutting down advertising expenses and increasing advertising success - it's a no brainer!

Fortunately were not superstitious people otherwise we might consider this, our 13th year, to be an omen of bad luck. After focussing primarily of website development for the last 12 years we have seen the industry change and grow from a niche luxury item back in the year 2000 to an ever important and essential part of business today.

The web development industry has moved very quickly over the last 12 years and we are fortunate that we live in a country that is tech savvy and always looking into the future.

One recent example of seeing proof of how important the website is to any business is in a recent Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) proposal we put together for one of our Townsville builders.

In our SEO proposals we show our clients real world data that is collected by Google as to how many people are searching for a particular word or phrase.

The figures we were given by Google showed that the phrase 'builders Townsville' was searched for 1,600 times as a local (not global) search every month. The company also found it interesting how many times their own individual company name was searched for every month as well.

This went on to prove that the internet is a medium that is used by anyone and everyone when you consider that people don't search for something if they aren't interested in it. (No one searches for 'builders Townsville' just for fun)

What a great targeted way to be noticed and found by your prospective clients and customers. We now have an advertising medium that has no wastage like the other mainstream advertising methods.

If a Townsville builder advertises to 45,000 on the radio or 65,000 in the newspaper they are potentially only trying to reach the people who may be interested in building at that time.

If the cost per reach is calculated on how much is being spent per person then all of a sudden a lot of money has been wasted advertising to the wrong people. With your website, on the other hand, being able to reach all of those 1,600 people who search for 'Townsville builder' every month is worth every penny.

In an economic time where everyone is watching their expenditure this makes good financial sense.

If you want to talk to us further about how we can help you waste less advertising revenue and get the most efficient and targeted reach possible talk to us today for an obligation free chat.

The goal posts have again been moved and effective search engine optimisation (SEO) is now more complicated and more essential to getting your business ranked well on the popular search engines. We have new staff to work full time with clients on these new avenues and have found successful results with the targeted approach we take towards finding the appropriate search phrases to optimise the website for searches and doing a set list of processes to the individual websites in order to make them Google friendly by the standards of today.

We have developed tools which allow us to constantly monitor the ranking progress and power of a particular website page with a defined search word or phrase and also have the ability to give clients real time data as to how many people in Australia and the world search for any particular keyword or key phrase. This means we can determine if a keyword or key phrase is of any weight and if there is any necessity in optimising the website to come up under searches for it prominently.

For instance if a business particularly wanted to come up under a search for 'Pest Controllers Townsville' we would initially use our software package to give an exact number on how many local or global searches are performed in the different search engines for that particular key phrase.

If the number is relatively low we can report to our client that there is no real benefit in coming up under a search for that and their budget for SEO would better be invested on another set of keywords or key phrases.

Our SEO team will spend the time working out the best keywords and key phrases for your website and then perform the SEO process which includes all the tagging, linking, phrasing, copywriting, submissions, directory listings and indexing among many more processes that have proven our SEO to be amongst the most successful in the region.

For a real time case study on our past SEO clients and obligation free proposal process please contact us today. We can provide these services to all of our clients in North Queensland.

Most of our clients will know that a lot of the Allcorp staff like their cars (maybe a bit too much) and with the recent news that local businessman, motorcycle collector and fellow petrolhead Ian "Hoppy" Hopkins was opening the doors of his normally private Moto Australia in Cairns all for the aid of the Salvo's we just had to get involved.

With our membership in the Porsche & Ferrari Club we arranged for a display of some of our cars and other club members cars at the entrance to Ian's museum to add a bit of impact to the street appeal of the event.

Ian has amassed about 40 rare and valuable racing motorcycles, as well as a priceless library of posters, books, magazines, framed prints, paintings and other memorabilia of some of the greatest names in motorcycle racing.

With our display of modern and classic Porsche & Ferrari providing a valuable anchor point for the passing traffic on Mulgrave Road we are pleased that the full day event managed to raise over $12,000 for the Salvation Army.

It seems par for the course these days that when you get a website and start publishing your email address for all the world to see it is more than likely that the volume of unwanted emails will increase. We have had a few calls from clients in the last number of weeks requesting a solution to this problem and the reality is that we have the solution installed on our mail server and ready to go.

If we supply your mail, normally if your email address ends with your domain name, we have turned on a preliminary spam filtering program for the last few months. At this stage, and with most clients, the setting for this spam filtering software has been set to simply mark messages with [SPAM] in front of the subject title. This means that you will still receive the junk email messages but will know first hand what the filter is identifying as junk email.

The good thing about this is that if the server settings are at the correct level for your email traffic only unwanted email will be marked as [SPAM] and if you are satisfied that no wanted emails are being marked as [SPAM] we can permanently delete these emails before you even receive them.

Just send us an email confirming that you want us to activate the [SPAM] deletion option for your individual mail account and we'll take care of it for you.

If you are receiving messages that are wanted and marked as [SPAM] let us know and we will change the settings until we get the correct result.

A recent case study involving one of our long term Townsville clients has proven the effectiveness of selecting multiple domain names to bring up your website. It is possible to have as many domain names as you want for your website and this one such client had worked with us in selecting over 40 different domain names that they could use to bring up their website.

These domain names obviously included keywords that related to their business and after an initial 'bedding in' period we have found that their search engine rankings have shot up from average results on page 3 or 4 to first page and usually top 5 rankings. For this particular clients industry this is an exceptional result.

There are other such ways that we can assist your website to get a better exposure but the multiple domain name option is one of the simplest and usually doesn't alter the hosting cost of your website.

The other benefits of registering multiple domain names is that they automatically work as alternate email addresses. For example if you had the existing email address of john.smith@northqld.com.au and registered a second domain name of www.northqueensland.com.au then any emails sent to john.smith@northqueensland.com.au would come to john.smith@northqld.com.au.

You can have as many domain names working with your website and email address as you like and setting it up is simple, quick and easy. If you'd like to talk with us more about how registering multiple domain names can increase your website search engine rankings give us a call or send us an email and we can show you more specific detail about how the process has worked with our previous clients.

What a month February was! Through developing 3 new shopping cart websites, organising photo shoots for 8 new clients, finalising the designs of 6 new websites, aiding a $30million pa Cairns business meet it's relaunch deadline, successfully acclimatising the new IT division and accepting orders on 11 new website design projects all while maintaining the usual day to day business necessities.

At the beginning of February we began work towards the relaunch of our long term clients website, Black & White Taxis, who are now known as Cairns Taxis. The project involved an extensive photo shoot at several Cairns landmark locations with 3 of the newly signed taxis complete with newly uniformed drivers and rent-a-crowd taxi passengers. Once the photos were complete and the new site design approved we went about transferring the extensive website back end database that controls the driver and owner logins, access to internal newsletters and notice board content and content management system from the old site to the new. After some final testing we were pleased to not only meet the target deadline of Cairns Taxis launch on March 1st but also beat it comfortably by 1 week.

Shopping cart websites were also very popular in February with clients either expanding their existing website to incorporate a shopping cart or new clients embracing the concept of being able to securely sell products online. All of our shopping cart sites are SSL secured and are 100% manageable by the client meaning they have full control over what products are in the cart as well as prices and freight options. (More information on shopping carts in our monthly promotion below)

The dawning of 2012 marks the 12th year that Allcorp have been leading the way in internet marketing and professional website design in the North Queensland area. From our studios both in Townsville & Cairns we have built a reputation for developing solutions for our clients that have stood out from the crowd and proven effective at drawing in new customers.

I n our 12 years as the leading web development company in NQ we have seen many other businesses attempt to compete on an even playing field with us and more often than not these businesses aren't around the following year. Whether they are a Southern business looking to expand their footprint or a local start-up they have more often than not fallen by the wayside. Their entire presence just disappears leaving what clients they could engage offline.

When choosing a business to handle your website needs it is imperative that you choose a company that has stood the test of time and will be around for years to come to continue working with you. As we all know, over time businesses change and our clients can rest assured in the knowledge that we will be on hand to offer our services as the need arises.

Due to our stability and constant endeavour to continually expand our services to best satisfy our market we are steering towards the future and therefore remain the only choice to handle your website needs.

We have some exciting news for the coming months with a new expansion of our core services that will benefit our clients by streamlining services that are essential to any business. With this new division we hope to be able to provide additional professional services to our client base with the same high regard to client satisfaction. We expect to release more specific information on this brand new arm of our company in the coming weeks.