Hourigan Webworks

Brógaí Beaga now online

2011-08-06T23:59:00.000+01:00

Brógaí Beaga is a new business selling corrective footwear for children.

Merge PDFs for free

2011-06-04T01:08:00.001+01:00

This is something I recently had to deal with, and I didn't want to spend money doing it. I had a bunch of single page PDFs which should have been a single document. If you google "merge PDFs" you'll see all types of packages for $20-50 programs that can do it for you.
But wait, first off if you have a Mac (newer than OSX 10.4) there's a little-known function in preview that allows you to merge PDFs without any additional software.
Simply open the sidebar, drag in the other PDFs, put them in order and save in combination.

For PCs, it can depend a lot of your software.
If you have nothing on your machine that can do it, check out some of the free merge options.
One that I found had a limit of 15MB, so, you might be able to merge 2-4 pages of files depending on file sizes.

Killowen Orchard site now online

2011-05-30T00:03:00.003+01:00

Client needed working site from scratch, in a week, that would show the range of flowers available.

Moyross.ie officially launched

2010-08-06T22:35:00.002+01:00

The website www.moyross.ie was designed for CDN moyross, the community development project based in Moyross, Limerick.
The site has information on groups and services, a news blog, history of the estate, PDF versions of the community newsletter,

Joe Allen Kitchens now online

2010-04-06T17:15:00.004+01:00

Client asked for a website to show his work as a cabinet maker, including photos and videos of bespoke kitchens, hand made furniture and restored furniture.

Website includes video tours of 9 kitchens, a slide show of some other kitchens, a video slide show of some hand made furniture, and a gallery of photos of previous work.

Also included was design and printing of 1,000 business cards, as well as a full back up of the entire site on disk for customer.

The client took a keen interest in the project and the constant communication helped to get the site done to client's satisfaction in good time.

Which company should I get my broadband from?

2010-02-15T22:20:00.007Z

If you want an internet connection, you want broadband. Dial up is ridiculously slow, and increasingly unpopular (less than 10% of the internet connections in the country are dial-up)
So, it should be simple, just go for who is offering the fastest broadband for the cheapest rate, right? WRONG!!!

If you're naive enough to think 'UP TO 8MB' Broadband means you will get 8MB speed broadband, then you deserve to be ripped off, and you probably will be.

FACTORS
'Up to 8MB' means that you would have a MAXIMUM of 8MB / second download speed, IF

NONE of your neighbours or housemates are on the internet
Your computer is connected by cable to the modem (rather than wireless on another floor)
Your modem is directly connected to the master socket by a short cable
You have nothing else open just a single browser window
You are located next door to the telephone exchange
The ISP is not having any technical problems
The weather is good... :)

Typically the stated rate doesn't compare well to the actual rate. Recent studies have shown it can be off by more than 60%. So that 'up to 8MB' offer could be less than 3MB in practice.

Broadband services are generally shared out from an exchange, so the more people online using your exchange, the slower your broadband will be. Also your distance from the exchange affects your rate.
I was recently talking to an Eircom engineer who told me that a new estate in the city is hooked up to the exchange out in Raheen (despite being closer to the main exchange in town) and as a result, Eircom broadband in that estate is half the speed of Eircom Broadband in Raheen simply because of distance.

So, I would recommend if you have friends /family living in the area, check out the service they are getting before you commit to a provider. Try opening websites like www.rte.ie/news on different computers at different times of the day to get an idea. You can also try websites designed for testing download speed such as http://www.testmyspeed.com/

CUSTOMER SERVICE
After all that it's also worth checking out the level of service from the company.
From my own experience, I have to say BT are simply terrible.
Their customer service is understaffed and operating to ridiculous procedures that waste time and make little sense.
Any problem takes a ridiculous amount of time and effort to get solved. They hooked my broadband up to a stranger's house 2 miles away, and refused to admit it or correct it, or refund me until I'd made about 15 phone calls.
So, unless you don't have any alternative, I would recommend avoiding them like the plague.

MOBILE BROADBAND
As for mobile broadband, this is even harder to predict. In some areas, it's not available due to hills and other obstacles. I've only tried it once, and found it very slow. I would be very slow to trust the maps that they issue showing coverage. The general rule of thumb is, if your friends have one, borrow it for a while and see how it works, before you commit to buying.
Personally, I would recommend a fixed line connection where possible.

LIMITS
Don't forget to check if there are any download/upload limits on the offer. Some packages have quite low limits, (and charge a lot for going over), so if you are a heavy user, (webdesigner, gamer, or YouTube addict) then avoid any deal with low download limits.

And remember the golden rule: shop around for the best speeds, service and price.

Hourigan Webworks

CME.ie is now online

2010-02-07T15:33:00.000Z

www.cme.ie , the website for Capital Mechanical Engineering is now online.
Capital Mechanical Engineering is a Limerick-based Engineering firm. Their full range of services, and some photographs of previous work are laid out on the website.

Dalton's Dance School website now online

2009-12-07T23:09:00.003Z

The website for Alex Dalton's School of Classical Dance is now online. It's still the first live draft, but it has the details of the Cecchetti method taught by Alex, as well as the timetable for dance classes and a helpful map of where the dance studio is located.
The pages, robots.txt file and sitemap are current, and the site has been submitted to Search Engines.

What should I ask a webdesigner before I hire him/her?

2009-10-29T16:29:00.011Z

Picking a webdesigner can be a tricky business. There are lots of people looking for that businesses, some are good, some are not, some are downright cowboys. How do you tell the competent ones from the chancers? Here are a few brief pointers.

Show me some of your previous work (and some proof that he/she actually did the sites)
How much will the website cost, how long will it take?
Is this site from a template, or are you making it from scratch?
How much will the annual hosting and domain cost (some of these chancers ask for over 150 per year, which is about twice what it should cost just to keep the site up)
Open Google, and get it to list all the pages of some of your previous customers websites (some of the fly-by-night types aren't webdesigners, they bought some templates, and are reselling them, with a few adjustments, like your business name and text, but some of these cowboys have NO IDEA how to submit a site to Google. If your website isn't listed in the Google Search Index, then Google will not find your site.
Will I be able to update the site myself?
Who are you hosting with?
What keywords would you use for my business, and how popular are they in Irish internet searches?
Can you tell me, roughly how many people search the internet for my product/service in Ireland per month? (they should be able to give a decent estimate, and explain where they got their figures from)
What type of after-sales service do you provide?
Where do you get the images you use on your websites (they should not use copyright images. The website OWNER gets in trouble, not the designer).

What Pages should I have on my website?

2009-10-25T10:10:00.008Z

The first thing is to remember, the number of pages your website has is not as important as making sure you have included all the information you need to give your customers, and that this information is easy for them to find. Also bear in mind, that a website is not a book. You can add more pages later if you need to.

Most people will wait until they have about 3-5 pages ready before they put anything up on their website, others might launch their website with only have one page, containing a summary of what you do, where you can be found, and how to contact you.
And later, as they expand on that, those things can get separate pages to include more detail.

Generally speaking, you should at least have HOME, SERVICES/ PRODUCTS and CONTACT pages, and depending on your business, an ABOUT page and an FAQ page.

Depending on how much you need to put on each of these pages, they might link again to further pages, but the rule is that the customer shouldn't have to click more than three times to get to the information they want.

Let's look quickly at the function of each page, starting with the home page.

Home Page / Index :
The most important page is the "Home Page" or "Index Page".
It's usually the first page people will find, and the one you should put on your business cards and other advertising.
Your home page is a bit like your shop front on the internet. It should catch the viewer's attention quickly and present something of interest to them.
Don't try to put everything on the front page. It usually ends up making it look too cluttered and not so easy for the eye to scan it. Once you have enough to grab the attention and interest them in reading further, direct them to the links so they can navigate the other pages on the site. (much like the entrance to a department store, it doesn't list every item on the shelves, but it has some ads and directs you to DIY, Groceries, Clothing sections)

About Page.
This depends on your business. It's not normally a place to write your life history, or even a long tract on the history of your business, unless the people you expect to read it are potential investors. If you're selling tyres for cars, people generally don't care much about the details of your business. If you are providing a professional service or products for an expensive project (e.g. materials or heating systems for houses) people might want to check out your credentials.
So, if you are a teacher, or driving instructor, they might want to read about your qualifications, how many years you have been in business etc.
If you provide heating systems or architectural systems they might also want to know about previous projects you have built and maybe even some testimonials from satisfied customers. These might have separate pages of their own linking from the about page, but there should be a short reference to them in the about page.

FAQ (Frequently asked Questions)
This depends on your business of course. Not every business would need this, but they can be useful, to explain what exactly you do, and maybe to explain some jargon associated with the product or service (E.G. the difference between a hydraulic or cable brake system)
With some products or services, there can be a lot of questions customers will want the answers to before they commit to buying (or even picking up the phone).
If a lot of the same questions come up again and again, then it's better to have the answers there ready and waiting. That way, they won't need to e-mail you (taking up their time and yours) or head off to another website offering the same service.
I would also recommend saying "if you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact me" and put a link to your contact details, or simply repeat them.

Contact Page:
Obviously you want a way for the customers to contact you, so that phone number, email address, shop address, (and maybe a map)
When starting off, when you don't have much content on the home page, you can fill out the space with all your contact details and how happy you'd be to take that call.
You might even have your phone number as part of your banner or logo at the top of the page, depending on the size and style of your banner/logo, and whether there's more than one office and more than one number or e-mail to call.
Later, you might just want to have an main e-mail and phone number on the front page, and have all the rest (map, directions, a couple of paragaphs about opening times, etc) on a separate page.
It's also a good idea to have a link from Contacts to an FAQ page as people might be able to save time if the answer to their question is already on the website.

Other pages could include News or Blog, Special Offers, and maybe Links to other resources. Those are all fairly self explanatory, and again it depends on the nature of your business whether or not you need to use them, and also how often you, or your webdesigner will be updating the site. There's little point having a section called News or Special Offers, if the news is 9 months old, or the special offer expired last year.

We have moved!

2009-10-23T02:28:00.003+01:00

I know nothing really looks any different, but if you look at the address bar you'll see that you haven't been visiting www.thourigan.com but now the website is located at www.houriganwebworks.com, which matches the business name.

Just a small admin detail. I was never really comfortable with the domain thourigan.com so when it came time to renew, I went for something that matched the business name.
The site is now houriganwebworks.com, but people trying to open thourigan.com will be automatically redirected to the new site.

Instead of e-mailing webworks@thourigan.com, e-mails should now go to tim@houriganwebworks.com

If you've ever thought of changing your website name, here's a short article on it recently posted.

What if I want to change the name of my website?

2009-10-13T11:54:00.010+01:00

Well first off, it can be done, and there's plenty of reasons for it.
Take the example of a site set up without thinking much about the name, to list the therapists in part of the US, www.findtherapist.com . Some might read as Find The Rapist, rather than Find Therapist.

Other businesses have had website names that are far too long to remember, too long to type without making a mistake, and maybe a bit long to fit on leaflets, side of the van etc.

www.johnmurphysroofcleaningandwindowwashingservice.ie is a bit of a monster (but not too far off of some site names I've seen!).
Say later, Mr Murphy wishes he had picked www.roofandwindows.ie. Well it's not too late to change! There is a bit of work involved in it, but it can be done fairly quickly if you have a small website and not a lot of links to worry about.

Firstly, DON'T just cancel the old name. Some people will still be going to it, and any old leaflets or business cards, etc will have the old name, rather than the new name.
Buy the new domain name (lets use the example of www.roofandwindows.ie) and get that name to point to the pages of your website.
Then set up a redirect to the new one. (e.g. if someone tries to open www.johnmurphysroofcleaningandwindowwashingservice.ie they will be redirected instead to www.roofandwindows.ie)

So, keep the old name around for a while, while you promote the new one, and in the meantime, if there are any other websites linking to your website, ask them to link to the new name. (Otherwise, when you finally stop paying for the old name, their links will be a dead end.)

Don't forget to re-submit the new name, new sitemap to search engines etc, and update robots.txt if necessary.

Don't forget to sort out your e-mail as well, if it's linked to the old domain name, get it forwarded for a while to the new one.

What should I put on my website?

2009-09-23T22:18:00.011+01:00

Getting a website for your business can be daunting. What do I put on it? What do I leave out?

Here are the top DO's and DON'Ts for your business website content.

DO

Think about what your customers want, and the quickest way to match that with what you have to offer. Remember, they're on the internet, not on your premises, catch their attention quickly.
Talk to your website designer about what you want from the site.
Expect to put in some time at the start of the process.
Pick a domain name that is fairly short, easy to remember and spell, and also has some sort of relevance to the product.
Put your contact details on there. I have seen sites that forgot to do it!

DON'T.

Don't try to save time by just sticking of a photo of your business card of leaflet. It may look okay when you look at the site, but how do you expect Google to find it? Google's programs don't 'read' photographs of text.
Don't put long paragraphs of text welcoming people to the site. That may be fine for written reports, or corporate speeches, but on the internet, people are less patient, and want you to get to the point quickly. After all, they can just click 'back' and leave your site very quickly.
Don't give too much info on your business. After all, your competition is sure to check your website too!
Don't fill your front page with too many fancy graphics and Flash movies. If it takes too long to load, the customers will move to the next site.
Don't use too much jargon. The easier it is for customers to understand, the better.
Don't use copyrighted music, images or other content without permission. You can be sued.

Aren't websites too expensive?

2009-09-23T22:06:00.002+01:00

There are still people out there who will ask you for €1,500 to €2,000 to design a simple website, and up to €400 a year to host it.
A basic website shouldn't be anywhere near that expensive.
The cowboys probably won't mention that there is a GRANT available for business websites. Your city or country enterprise board could pay up to 50% up the cost of setting up the site.
If you're paying €2,000 for a site, you'd better be getting interactive features, custom edited video, and other stuff that is useful for your customers, not just because your webdesigner wants to show off (and charge you for it).
If you're just looking to let the world know you exist, what you're offering, and how to contact you, then a website should be cheaper than placing a medium size colour ad in your local newspaper.
Once your site is set up, the costs of maintaining it are very low compared to advertising on paper, radio or billboards.

Beware those who promise Google gold!

2009-09-21T17:37:00.004+01:00

I get e-mails from them, and some of my customers get them too.
We promise to put you on the top 10 results for Google! Yeah? for how much?

The quickest way into the Google top 10 is to fork out a small fortune for paid ads. That phrase or word that people use to search for your business is auctioned to the highest bidder. Depending on how much competition there is for a search term, you could be talking about paying thousands per year.
If you have that type of budget, and enough turnover, then that may not be a problem, but for most of us, it's not the way to go.

Get your site built properly, and pay attention to how it is coded, in particular, the "Title", "Description" and "Keyword" Tags, and that the text of your site contains terms relevant to the most popular search terms for your industry or sector. This should be standard for any site, and it's just good webdesign, it's not a ticket to Google success all by itself.

There is no quick, cheap fix for websites. Like other aspects of your business, if you don't put in some work, you won't see the results. It's not like 'Field of Dreams'... "If you build it they will come". Nope. Not unless you pay a lot of money to advertisers up front.

Talk to your webdesigner, let them know about your products and services, and the terms your customers use. Get your website to reflect the words that the customer uses, not the jargon you would use when talking to a supplier.
Make sure that people know your site is out there.

E-mail your friends to 'show off' the site, and maybe get some feedback.
If you have a Facebook, MySpace, or Bebo account, mention your new site there. Depending on what your business does, you might even create an account for it that links to the website.
Put your new website address on your leaflets, posters and other advertising.
If you have a golden pages listing, you might want to include your website info there as well.

And then, the most important thing.... GOOD CONTENT!
Make the site useful. Make it so that people would find it interesting.
Why have you read as far as this sentence? Because you found the article interesting.
If the first paragraph bored you, you would have clicked off by now.
When you are looking to buy something, you will check a few websites right? Not JUST the first one in Google... well, then you'll read the site, if it's easy to follow, if it's in plain language and gets to the point.
Well, do the same with your own site.
Don't waffle. Don't just rely on being flashy, and don't expect any 'tricks' to get to no. 1 in Google Search.

Build a good site, coded properly, that users will find useful.
Promote the site - Get people talking and e-mailing about it.
Get links to and from the site.

And people will find your site.
Whether or not they will come back depends on you, your service, your quality, your reputation.

Anyone who tells you different is selling something, and for a high price.

How can I tell a good website from a bad one?

2009-07-02T09:27:00.002+01:00

It's not always obvious from quickly looking at a website whether it's worth the money you've paid for it. Here's a quick guide.

All good websites follow the same rules, but there are many types of bad website

Good Websites

The customer is able to find the site
The site opens quickly without any fuss
The customer can read what's on the site
The content of the site quickly tells the customer what they want to know
The customer can find their way around the site easily

Bad Websites

Site might look well, but won't show up in Google or Yahoo search.
Webdesigner set up big flashy intro that takes 10 seconds to load even with broadband.
Only customers with large screens or perfect eyesight can read what's on your site
The site is full of marketing jargon like 'integrated customer solutions' and 'client service interfacing'
The site layout is more like a maze than a straightforward tour of your business

GOOD WEBSITES DON'T HAPPEN BY ACCIDENT

The webdesigner acts like a business parter, getting to know about the business and the customers.
Then the website has to be coded correctly for search engines like Google, and built to suit your customers, so that they find it useful and interesting, instead of clicking out of your site and going to your competitor's website.

Motorschool.ie now online

2009-07-02T00:14:00.001+01:00

The website for the Mid-West school of Motoring, www.motorschool.ie, is now online. The page content is almost finalised, and client seems happy with the colour scheme.
Meeting with client will finalise content and image selections, and hopefully, a good many learner drivers will find their way to the site, and to safe and succesful driving with Barry Gallagher's tuition.

Have also helped with a blog for Motorschool.ie and if client updates it regularly, this should help drive hits to the site.

30% increase in Broadband connections.

2009-06-17T19:16:00.002+01:00

Latest Quarterly report from the Communications Regulator, ComReg, shows that the number of broadband connections has increased almost 30% in the last year.

As at the end of March. there were 1,272,166 broadband subscriptions, which is 28.2% higher than the same time in 2008.

The total number of internet connections had increased to 1,472,599.
200,433 customers still have slower 'narrowband' or dial-up connections but the number of slower connections is decreasing as more people switch to broadband.

The full report is available at the ComReg website.

New Projects

2009-06-08T01:33:00.000+01:00

This week, I've picked up two more clients for full website design - a garden centre, and a driving school.

Gladly for me, both of them have thought about what they want on their site and one even had content on disc when I met him at the first meeting.

The list of projects in development is growing.
The recession doesn't help much. Some clients are nervous about getting a website, while for others, the worries it brings doesn't give them much time to plan.