We are pleased to announce Graphedia have been awarded Ecomerit Green certification.
We have been working with EcoMerit to create a bespoke environmental improvement plan for our business and develop our green credentials. We will continue support and measure progress over time, as we implement actions from the plan.
Using the Green for Micro project as a springboard EcoMerit worked with Graphedia to develop an Environmental Policy and an action-oriented Environmental Improvement Plan. Guidance was also provided on how to use the EcoMerit performance workbooks to monitor our energy, carbon, water and waste usage.
Wexford County Councillor and Chair of the EcoMerit Oversight Board, Leonard Kelly, visited Graphedia’s Wexford office to present them with their EcoMerit Certificate. He commented:
“I was delighted to present Graphedia with their EcoMerit Certificate. It’s brilliant to see another Wexford business taking action on its environmental impact, especially given the latest reports from the IPCC reminding us of the urgency of the climate situation.”
Sarah Reck Co Founder of Graphedia commented:
“We are delighted to be able to participate in such an excellent project that helps us become more aware of our Environmental responsibilities. EcoMerit allowed us to take an overall look at our current actions and implement an improvement plan to develop our green credentials. Thanks so much to all involved.”
Graphedia are looking to recruit Full Time Web Developers & Web Programmers to join our expanding team. This is an excellent opportunity to join a creative and vibrant work environment.
Web Developer & Programmer roles will be predominately WordPress Development
but not using themes or elementor plugins, for programmers High Proficiency in PHP – at least 3-4 years in a working capacity
We are looking for an enthusiastic and motivated people, we work in a very creative, fun and team focused environment. Graphedia offers flexibility and freedom in return for passion and commitment. Graphedia is an Award Winning Digital Design Agency based in Wexford & Kildare. Our people are creative, innovative, technical and passionate about everything digital.
Roles & Responsibilities:
Website development using WordPress, content publishing.
Website management queries from clients and team members. Debug complex issues and bugs using debugging tools for wordpress
Conduct code reviews to maintain a clean and consistent code
Website Support & Answering customer support queries
Liaise directly with clients to ensure their web requirements are managed.
Experienced in developing for WordPress CMS systems.
Able to work both alone and as part of a team.
Knowledge of WordPress installation, configuration, administration security and optimisation.
Web hosting, email set up, and DNS knowledge desirable.
Experience:
Experience essential with industry standard development packages such as PHP, WordPress, Custom Field Development, Atom or similar IDE
Usability – understanding of how customers interact with websites and how to improve and innovate on same
Strong interpersonal skills
Ability to multi-task and ensure flawless execution and delivery
Good responsive design and user interface design.
Phone Skills Essential
This is an office based position in our Wexford office.
If interested in this opportunity please Email info@graphedia.ie with the subject line “Web Developer Role”
We look forward to hearing from you.
If you have sent in your cv previously and you are interested in this role please resend again.
Graphedia is an Equal Opportunities Employer, All applications processed in the strictest of confidence
In recent times cloning of business social Media platforms has rapidly increased and is still on an upward trend which can be a threat to your business especially with the reliance on these platforms with its ever developing industry
It has come to our attention recently that more and more businesses are having their Instagram accounts cloned by scammers. This happens where criminals have set up an account and stolen your Bio, your images, and created an account that looks exactly like yours. They continue by trying to get your existing followers to follow them thinking it is you and message your followers directly looking for personal and payment details. The scammers generally target those with a high number of followers (Over 10k).
They continue by taking payment and then the purchaser is contacting you (the proper company) about their order. This is sometimes how companies find out they have been cloned when someone emails into you asking where is their product.
This is fraud and causes great concern for the business owners thus finding a resolution is not easy as trying to contact Instagram can be difficult. Unfortunately, sometimes Instagram has no way of being able to tell which account is the real one and ends up shutting both accounts down.
You need to take action ASAP. Here’s what to do if your Instagram account is cloned!
This is becoming very common, here are 5 tips to help you sort it out
* Note contacting the Gardai about fraudulent social media platforms is not an option *
Ensure your Business Account is verified this can increase your chances of your account being recovered promptly (see how to verify below)**Did you know… 9times out of 10 Business Accounts are not verified on their social media platforms and its as easy as 1.2.3 ** Instagram verification is how you prove that your Instagram account is the authentic presence of a notable public figure, celebrity or global brand. It puts the Blue badge on your account.These badges are designed to make the real accounts stand out, so that Instagram users can be sure they’re following the right person or brand. They’re easy to spot in search results and on profiles, and they convey authority.You need to do the following steps, if you don’t do this part the rest of the steps are pointless)
a) Go to your profile and tap the hamburger icon in the top right corner
b) Tap Settings
c) Tap Account
d) Tap Request Verification.
e) Fill in the application form. Your legal name. Your “known as” or working name (if applicable) …
f) Tap Send.Once submitted can take up to 30 days to get verified. Good video how to below from hootesuite labs
Immediately take a screenshot of the fake account.
If you have been blocked by the account that has cloned you, ask your friends or customers to find it and send you a screenshot of it.
Change your profile picture to be able to distinguish between your real account and the fake account and add a new grid post quickly so that your real account looks different straight away.
Report to Instagram using this link https://help.instagram.com/370054663112398
See info from page hereInstagram takes safety seriously. If someone created an Instagram account pretending to be you, you can report it to us. Make sure that you provide all the requested info, including a photo of your government-issued ID.If you have an Instagram account, you can report it to them from within the app, or by filling in this form. If you don’t have an Instagram account, please fill in this form.Instagram only respond to reports sent to them from the person who’s being impersonated or a representative of the person who’s being impersonated (e.g. a parent). If someone you know is being impersonated, please encourage that person to report it.Bear in mind that your report is anonymous, except if you’re reporting an intellectual property infringement. The account you reported won’t see who reported them.Note: If you’re having trouble with uploading a photo of your ID from a mobile phone, please try submitting this form from a computer.
Ask as many people as you can, friends, family, followers etc to find the cloned account and report it to Instagram from within the app. It’s important that they report it as “Impersonating someone you know“, rather than just blocking it. Here are the steps to do this: Go on to the profile > Click the 3 dots on the top right-hand corner > Report > It’s inappropriate > Report Account > It’s pretending to be someone else.
Last few tips for extra security
Ensure you have two-factor authentication enabled on your account. This is an added layer of security on your account. It means that when you sign in to your account, Instagram & Facebook will send a code to your registered phone number or email which you then have to input before you can log in to the account.
Change your password on a regular basis. (DO NOT use your name in your password)
Being Seen through Social Media is a priority for Digital Marketing of your Business but Being Safe is most important
Graphedia are very proud to have achieved Google Partner Status for Google AdWords for Search ads, Display Ads, Shopping Ads, Mobile Ads & Video
Google Partner Status means we are recognized for:
Maximizing campaign success for our clients
Driving client growth by maintaining clients’ campaigns
Demonstrating Google Ads skills and expertise with certifications.
What Is a Google Partner?
Google Partners are agencies that manage multiple Google Ads accounts for other companies and have passed the minimum requirements needed to be awarded a Google Partner status. Once you pass all the requirements, you are awarded a Google Partner badge which we can then showcase to clients to prove that you have expert knowledge in Google Ads. With a Google Partner status, we get access to a range of resources and support to help you grow and manage your ad accounts.
Niall Reck the owner of Graphedia says “It is great for our company, we are absolutely thrilled with the partner status. We strive to keep moving forward and to give our customers the best and latest services. It really shows the hard work we here at Graphedia put into achieving results for our customers.”
See a list of top keyphrases that you may find interesting and apply to your own business. Are you using any of the types of phrases below in your blogs, content and meta data?
What people are searching
Early gift shopping
YoY searches for “best christmas” have grown 30%
Ex: best christmas gifts 2021, best christmas movies, best christmas markets in europe, best christmas songs
WoW searches for “christmas gift ideas” have grown 30%
Ex: christmas gift ideas for her, christmas gift ideas for him, christmas gift ideas for kids
YoY searches for “christmas markets” have grown 300%
Ex: christmas markets 2021 uk, best christmas markets in europe, christmas markets
YoY searches for “gift shops near me” have grown 60%
Ex: best gift shops near me, customized gift shops near me, unique gift shops near me
Source: Year over Year – Google Data, Global English, Aug 31, 2021–Oct 29, 2021 vs Aug 31, 2020–Oct 29, 2020
Holiday shoppers plan to take full advantage of retailers’ omnichannel options, which is likely to boost ecommerce sales 13% over last year
On average, 63% of holiday shoppers surveyed across select countries would like to receive communication about the holidays from retailers and/or brands in November, up from 31% who like to receive holiday communication in October.
Source: Google-commissioned Ipsos COVID-19 tracker, AU, BR, CA, CN, DE, ES, FR, IN, IT, JP, MX, RU, KR, UK, US, ZA, “~n=300-830 online consumers 18+ per market who will shop for the holiday season,” Oct 21–24, 2021
YoY searches for “best place to stay” have grown 60%
Ex: best place to stay in goa, best place to stay in paris, best place to stay in hawaii, best place to stay in dubai
YoY searches for “best places to travel in” have grown 100%
Ex: best places to travel in december, best places to travel in november, best places to travel in january, best places to travel in february
YoY searches for “last minute hotel deals” have grown 70%
Ex: last minute hotel deals london, last minute hotel deals near me, secret last minute hotel deals
YoY searches for “travel rules” have grown 600%
Ex: travel rules, travel rules uk, new travel rules
On average, 62% of holiday shoppers surveyed across select countries say they will browse for gift ideas online – not in store.
On average, 57% of holiday shoppers surveyed across select countries say they will confirm online that an item is in stock before going to buy it.
Source: Year over Year – Google Data, Global English, Aug 31, 2021–Oct 29, 2021 vs Aug 31, 2020–Oct 29, 2020
Salesforce research found retailers that offered curbside, drive-thru and in-store pickup options saw their sales increase by 54% YoY in the five days leading up to Christmas 2020, compared with 34% for retailers that did not offer those options.
Source: CNBC, US, “Salesforce projects retailers will pay $223 billion extra for goods in the second half,” Jul 20, 2021
Salesforce predicts that online sales will continue to grow – up to 10% in the US and 7% around the globe. In other words, between November and December, online shoppers will spend $259B in the US and $1.2T globally.
Source: Salesforce, Global, “Extra holiday insight thanks to data from over 1 billion global shoppers,” Oct 1, 2021
Mobile commerce – the fastest-growing ecommerce channel – is expected to increase 18.8% to $97.15B during the holiday season, with most of that activity flowing through apps
Source: Google-commissioned Ipsos COVID-19 tracker, AU, BR, CA, CN, DE, ES, FR, IN, IT, JP, MX, RU, KR, UK, US, ZA, “~n=300-830 online consumers 18+ per market who will shop for the holiday season,” Oct 21–24, 2021
My name is Niall Reck from Wexford, a leisure runner and local business owner of Graphedia.com. I normally always run with my dogs, 3 Irish Wolfhounds. I would be a leisure runner mainly 10k max are my runs, but I try to mix it up with hills and scenic views. Here are a few of my favourite dog friendly routes, I hope you enjoy!
Routes: I have 3 routes for you, from easy flat to calf crushing hills
Wexford Town (nice and flat, small hills)
Ravens Forest / Curracloe Beach
2 routes,
Gravel path and beach, (flat)
Through the forest and then beach (lots of humps and bumps 😊)
A new fund available through Enterprise Ireland to provide strategic intervention for any eligible company wishing to develop a digital adaption plan
Digitalisation Voucher
The new Digitalisation Voucher is a 100% funded grant which provides support to companies as they seek to access the expertise needed to develop a digital roadmap for their business. This expertise can take the form of independent technical or advisory services that relate to the current and future operations of the business, with respect to assessing their digital readiness and identifying opportunities for increased digitalisation across the business.
Description of funding
the voucher covers the provision of technical or advisory services related to the operations of the business, from an approved service provider up to a value of €9,000
a maximum daily rate of €900 shall apply
the support will be provided over a relatively short period but it may be spread out over a maximum of 8 weeks
Eligible Projects must include one or more of the following activities:
internal process optimisation (Lean-Digital-Automation)
customer digital experience (Product, Service, Route to Market, Channels)
Manufacturing or internationally traded services companies which:
employed 10 or more full time employees on their payroll on 29 February 2020; or
employed 10 full time employees at the time of application
as part of the application you will need to complete a digital assessment scorecard from Enterprise Ireland globalambition.ie/scorecard which will provide an overview of your current digital readiness
In order to be eligible for funding, companies must:
have experienced, or are projected to experience, a 15% or more reduction in actual or projected turnover or profit as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak; the reduction in turnover or profit of 15% or more relates to a comparable quarter in 2019 or 2020
or have had a significant increase in operational costs as a result of COVID-19
not have been Undertakings in Difficulty at 31 December 2019 and/or at the date of application, as provided for in State aid law. An exception to this is micro and small undertakings (that is, undertakings with fewer than 50 employees and less than €10m of annual turnover and/or balance sheet value) provided that at the moment of providing the support, they are not subject to collective insolvency procedure under national law
“Now, as we cautiously emerge from these necessary public health restrictions and global markets begin to open up again, the government will continue to help businesses in their next phase of recovery and adaptation.”
“The new €51 million fund is intended to ensure that Irish businesses continue to be supported in recovery from the impact of COVID-19. To date, Enterprise Ireland has approved more than €181 million in COVID-19 financial supports under the Sustaining Enterprise Fund protecting more than 27,500 jobs.
“As economies reopen, ongoing investment in business-critical areas is vital to the long-term growth of companies.”
We have put together a list of local Ecommerce businesses that we have worked with that you can shop online while stuck at home this pandemic.
All offering Click and collect, delivery within a day. We hope you can support some of these superlative businesses and remember shopping local online helps protects jobs and communities.
Let’s shop local and support Irish businesses this year.
Beauty Products
Body Love~ Scrubs and butters, the formulated natural beauty products
Whitney Career Guidance ~ Specializing in Career Guidance, Training and Personal Development
Electronics & Tech
Joyce’s Electrical Store ~ Irelands largest provider of electrical goods in the South East, Your online store for best prices for Large & Small Appliances, Tv & Tech.
Si Jolie ~ Womens Boutique specialising in both day wear and occasion wear.
Shoes Direct ~ for those hard to find sizes, widths and styles! Pumps, Wedges, Casual Styles Outdoor/Hiking, Sandals, Slippers, Workwear Shoes Online.
Men’s Clothing
Corcorans Menswear ~an extensive collection of brands to choose from such as Gant, SeaBury, Barbour and more
Hores Stores ~ offer leading brands in menswear, jeans, shoes, sports, childrens and more.
Toys
Byrnes Online ~ Here you will find a wide range of LEGO sets and toys for kids of all ages! Free shipping in Ireland
Dublin City Comics (not one of ours customers, but they have a wide range of Comics, Gunpla, Statues, Action Figures
Johnny Magory ~ Childrens books, helps families reconnect with Ireland’s wonderfully unique wildlife and heritage.
Charity
And if you have some extra few euros, we have some excellent local Charites that would love your help this year. Why not donate as little as €5 or buy something from their online shops
Friends of Wexford Hospital ~ ALL monies raised for Friends of Wexford General Hospital go directly to the charity
Hope Support Centre ~ was founded in 1999 by a group of people who were affected by cancer
Sensational Kids ~ Ireland’s only Child Development and Learning store run as a social enterprise.
Tracie Lawlor Trust ~ for Cystic Fibrosis was set up after the death of Tracie (24) by her family and friends
Wexford Hospice ~ need to provide a home based Palliative Care Service in County Wexford
Wexford Marine Watch ~ a voluntary organisation which provides Suicide Prevention Patrols along Wexford Quays, Estuary & Harbour
Wexford Rape Crisis ~ a service offering counselling to both men and women and young people aged 12 and over
And that’s it We hope you can support some of these superlative businesses and remember shopping local online helps protects jobs and communities, Share this page if you want to help.
Graphedia are looking to recruit a Senior Web Programmer to join our expanding team. This is an excellent opportunity to join a creative and vibrant work environment. We offer flexibility and freedom in return for passion and commitment. It is a relaxed work atmosphere with a great team of people.
Key requirements:
High Proficiency in PHP – at least 3-4 years in a working capacity
Excellent Knowledge in WordPress and plugin development, JavaScript / jQuery
Experienced in developing for CMS systems (WordPress)
Able to work both as an individual and as part of a team
Knowledge of WordPress installation, configuration, administration security and optimisation
Web hosting, email set up, and DNS knowledge
Apple and Android development of web apps would be desirable but not essential.
Roles & Responsibilities:
Website development, content publishing
Website management queries from clients. Debug complex issues and bugs using debugging tools
Conduct code reviews to maintain a clean and consistent code
Liaise with team members, clients, and 3rd party service providers
Provide support to the digital team
Liaise directly with clients to ensure their web requirements are managed
Customer phone support queries and dealing with clients
Experience:
2-3 Years Experience with commercial web development projects
Experience with industry standard design packages such as PHP, WordPress and plugin development, JavaScript / jQuery, MySql
Usability – understanding of how customers interact with websites and how to improve and innovate on same
Strong interpersonal skills
Ability to multi-task and ensure flawless execution and delivery
If you have previously sent in your cv for similar roles, please send in again
Graphedia is an Equal Opportunities Employer
All applications taken in the strictest of confidence, contact Niall if you have any queries
In April 2020, following a survey carried out by the Data Protection Commission (DPC), a report was published into the usage of cookies and tracking technologies on Irish websites and mobile apps.
Do you need to do anything, YES YOU DO
Any website, has until 5 October 2020 to comply with new laws governing cookies and tracking technologies. Regulation 5 of the ePrivacy Regulations and GDPR are the relevant pieces of legislation that govern the new laws on cookies and tracking technologies. you can read full report here In order to comply fully with the legislation, you will need an advanced cookie policy generator for your website, one that can scan your website and identify the cookies and technologies that your website uses. We use one such cookie policy generator on our website, see sample below.
You have 3 options when installing automatic cookie policies on your website that comply with the new laws:
Please find below GDPR cookie compliance checklist to help you and please also refer to the Guidance document on Cookies.
GDPR Cookie Compliance Checklist
Ensure to have a cookie banner on your website
Ensure the cookie banner gives the browser the options to accept and reject cookies or select preferences. If the browser is only given the option to accept, this type of consent is not GDPR compliant.
Ensure to have a cookie policy on your website.
Ensure your cookie policy is easy to find and easy to understand.
Ensure you have a data privacy notice displayed on your website and it is easy to find and understand.
Obtain a list of all the cookies that are operating on the website and the function they carry out. You will also need this for your cookie policy.
Ensure the list of cookies is grouped into necessary and non-necessary cookies that are operating on your website.
Obtain user consent before non-necessary cookies are set on the browser’s computer device. Do not use pre-ticked boxes. Communication and necessary cookies do not require consent. The list created from No. 7 above will assist you here.
Make it possible for website users to change their cookie settings easily and provide comprehensive information about the cookies operating on your website.
Only use the cookies for the purposes that have been outlined in your cookie banner/consent. Do not use them for any other purpose. It is all about transparency.
If your website requires user consent for cookies, ensure that there is a record of cookie consents. The Data Protection Commission will ask for proof of consents if your website is audited.
Ensure your website is compliant on or before the 5 of October 2020. From the 6 of October 2020 the Data Protection Commission will commence the auditing of websites.
Online Trading Grants extended with grants available up to €2,500 to get your business selling online
The support is available to cover 90% (previously 50%) of the costs of an online initiative and recipients can claim up to €2,500
The vouchers are targeted at businesses with the following profile:
Limited or no e-commerce presence;
10 or less employees;
Turnover less than €2m;
Applicant business must be trading for at least 6 Months;
Business must be located in the area covered by the LEO to whom they make their application i.e. LEOs cannot accept applications from businesses located outside their jurisdiction.
Does your Business Need a Greater Online Presence? Graphedia are here to help!
Did you know that sales from websites have increased by over 400% in the past few months?
Your doors may be closed but customers could still be ordering from you ….on line…. easily & securely. Graphedia.com will fully create, design & launch your Ecommerce website. We are trusted providers for Ecommerce Industry for the past 20 years, so our experience can get your business selling on line immediately.
If your business has availed of a Trading Online Voucher in the past, you can still apply for a second voucher to upgrade your website.
Graphedia Win Customer Excellence Award at the County Kildare Chamber Business Awards 2019 Sponsored by the Treacy Group.
Graphedia are delighted to have won the County Kildare Chamber Customer Excellence Award at a glittering Black Tie awards ceremony in the Killashee Hotel Kildare recently.
Graphedia were judged by a panel of experts who recognised Graphedia’s commitment to achieving the highest possible Customer Excellence. We would like to thank our loyal customers for their continued support. The Award was collected by Niall & Sarah Reck on the night.
Graphedia are established 20 years and have been based in Kildare 5 years now are over the moon with the recognition, Niall said “ We are thrilled to have won this award, it means a lot to the team in Graphedia who work very hard in keeping our standards high when looking after our customers. We have some amazing customers and it is great to get recognised like this.”
The Customer Excellence Award is designed for businesses who can demonstrate excellence and achievement within the field of customer care and service. Entrants would demonstrate excellence through their customer service objectives and strategy, business performance, customer care activities, staff development plans and show how this has driven business growth.
Carve On win the Ecommerce Award sponsored by Graphedia at the County Kildare Business Awards 2019
Over 360 business leaders from across Kildare attended the Kildare Business Awards Gala Ball in association with Kildare County Council and LEO Kildare on Friday night in The Killashee Hotel
3 finalists were shortlisted for the award on the night
Pop Up Races,
Carve On
Johnny MaGory
Carve on won it on the night
Founded by Gary and Alan McCormack, Carve On design and manufacture a broad range of goods from premium vegetable tanned leather. Specialising in the customisation and personalisation, Check out their website https://www.carveon.com/
A very big congratulations to Gary, Alan, Robert & Team
Halloween is a great chance for retailers to connect with their customers in ways that aren’t available any other time of the year.
Halloween-themed promotions and creative marketing can help your business pique customer interest and bring new people through the door and to your website.
Shopping trends of millennials show they are more willing to spend on experiences than things. For an event like Halloween, a millennial might spend more on a costume for one night than piece of daily attire with no sentimental value.
According to Visa
The rate of growth in eCommerce spending quickened markedly to a six-month high of +7.7% year-on-year in October, from +2.3% in September. Meanwhile expenditure on the high street was up +2.2% on an annual basis, the best performance since June. High street expenditure has now risen on an annual basis in each of the past 14 months.
Take a moment what do you think of when you think of Halloween
Trick or treat,
Fancy Dress,
Sweets,
peanuts,
Fireworks,
Bonfires,
Witches and Ghouls,
Joker,
Clowns,
Zombies,
Ghosts,
Spooky Tours,
Devil,
the number 666
House Decorations,
I’m sure you have others
Now can you embrace any of these and bring into your online experience, we would love to hear your ideas
You don’t have to be a Halloween retailer to get into the holiday spirit, and even just a little bit of Halloween goes a long way in letting your customers know you have the seasonal items they want.
Here are 7 ideas to get your business ready for Halloween Online
Design a Halloween-Themed Logo & Website add in some festive flair for Halloween to your brand, Create a spooky look for your storefront, website & Social media activities
Halloween themed Coupons For example, create a themed pop-up coupon that appears when a customer first enters your store Offer them 10% off for something or give something Halloween Themed away with their order
Host A Halloween Event or a Halloween Giveaway It doesn’t matter if you’re five or 85, everyone likes a party, so give the people what they want in the form of a themed event to celebrate Halloween
Send a Halloween Newsletter The numbers don’t lie: Email has an ROI of around 4,300%, 70% of people make use of coupons or discounts they learn about from email, and 60% of people say that receiving special offers is the top reason they subscribe to an email list from a business.
Halloween Blog Posts Get more traffic from Google with a blog post on “Halloween Gift Ideas”
Create Halloween-Inspired Products & Bundles
Inform people of the Halloween type products / services you have to offer
We hope you get some tips here to inspire you and make you look spooktacular, contact us today if you would like get creative
To get 10,000 Irish businesses online for the first time and to get a further 2,000 Irish SMEs trading online over a period of two years, the Government have introduced a “trade-online” voucher scheme as part of the National Digital Strategy.
This allows businesses to secure funding for 90% of their projects spend, up to a maximum reclaim of €2,500.
We have hundreds of customers selling online throughout Ireland and we would look forward to working with you too. If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact Us.
Graphedia is one of the largest creators of Ecommerce Websites in the South East, with our motto “Create sales while you sleep” and over 8 million Euros in online transactions to date, we are very proud to have Sponsored the Award for the past 5 years and look forward to this year’s event, and wish all applicants the best of luck.
This award category is aimed at businesses keen to show how they are harnessing the latest business thinking and technology to keep them at the cutting edge when selling or trading online. For this category, the judges are looking for evidence of a successful E-commerce website, and selling online. The Business should be forward thinking with a determination to strive for continued success by pushing the boundaries. The winning business in this category should have an excellent appreciation of how new technology can deliver a competitive advantage.
CLOSING DATE FOR ENTRIES IS FRIDAY 20TH SEPTEMBER 2019 AT 5PM so get applying
This is a new security measure to cut card fraud and is fast approaching.
It is important that you act on this, if you do not it is highly likely that customers will start experiencing problems paying online after September 14th
At present the only information that is required when making an online payment is the credit card number, expiry date and CVV number. If you are already using 3D secure payments, you may be providing much of this information already, If not you will need to take action.
The new requirements are being introduced to provide greater protection against fraud and are called Strong Customer Authentication or SCA for short. These are part of the Revised Payment Services Directive (PSD2) published in 2018, Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) is intended to make payments more secure, requiring online sellers to implement more stringent methods of ensuring the payments they are taking are genuine.
The system is designed to protect consumers, retailers and card issuers from fraud, but genuine transactions were inevitable collateral damage. Not every retailer used the additional layer of security but new regulations coming in the next few months will require most online payments to be subject to stronger authentication.
The main requirement for business owners
Under SCA, companies will have to verify a customer’s identity by two of the three following elements: something the customer possesses – i.e. the credit card, mobile device or smart card; something only the user knows, such as a password or PIN; and something that the user is, which means biometrics such as a fingerprint or facial scan.
In order to do this a significant amount of additional information is required by payment processors to be able to deal with these new requirements and your website will have to provide this information and make sure that it is in the correct format prior to sending it to the payment processor.
The main requirement for the customer
There will now be an extra step in the checkout process where customers will have to enter codes or use biometric authentication through their banking app to approve the payment.
Payments Over €50 will be Subject to the new regulations.
While smaller payments may not be subject to SCA, if you are taking payments larger payments > €50 the new requirements will apply.
The following must be provided by your customer when trying to make a payment:
Customer’s Phone Number The customer’s phone number must be provided and must be correct including country code (The user will have to have the ability to receive a text message).
Customer’s Eircode The customer’s eircode must be provided and correct.
Customer’s Billing Address The customer’s billing address including country must be provided and correct.
If the above information is not provided and correct it is very likely that payments will start failing authentication and you will start experiencing customer service problems.
Many payment forms collect much of this data already, but some do not validate the format of the data and many currently do not transmit this data to the payment processor.
We would recommend that you get this checked with us to avoid issues on September 14th.
Graphedia €2500 Trading Online Grant Ad : Star Trek Inspired, Our New Ad to promote Ecommerce Website design & the Trading Online Voucher Scheme – up to €2,500 grant available
Grow your business and sell online today with Graphedia.com, with help from this Government grant scheme, designed to assist small businesses.
We are all ears, so let us help you “make sales while you sleep”, be superlative
Pittman Traffic and Safety Solutions win the Ecommerce Award sponsored by Graphedia at the County Kildare Business Awards 2018
Over 360 business leaders from across Kildare attended the Kildare Business Awards Gala Ball in association with Kildare County Council and LEO Kildare on Friday night in The K Club.
3 finalists were shortlisted for the award on the night
Pop Up Races,
Car On
Pittman Traffic and Safety Solutions
Pittman Traffic and Safety Solutions won it on the night
The MC on the Night was Keith Barry and had some fun with Owners Niall & Sarah before announcing the award, have a look at pics below
The Award Winning Santas Magical Trail website is now live. Now in its 10th year the website is a more robust reliable system, that can deliver and perform, meeting customers expectations. (Santas Magical Trail 2018 Launch, Niall from Graphedia, dressed up as an elf with the team from Clanard Court Hotel promoting the Sleep over part of the experience)
Santa’s Magical Trail – a fun filled and action-packed experience for children young and old!
The new ECommerce Website was designed and developed by Graphedia Kildare, the new cusotm buile Event Booking Software / System integrated with WordpPress backend has a host of custom built features to help people book the event and hotel rooms online. The success of the site meant that dates with hotel rooms were sold out within hours.
Graphedias one of the sponsors of this years Wexford Maratho, are sponsoring team “Bride Street Gang” in entering the Wexford Marathon 2108 Team Relay. The team consists of Niall Reck (owner of Graphedia.com) and his fellow Bride Street childhood buddies, Dermot Foley, Gavin Hayes & Paul Hillis, who all grew up in the mean streets of Bride Street 😊 (OK Paul just go with it you are getting in on a technicality that your good wife is truly one of the gang members 😊)
We are putting out a challenge to any company or team to try and beat us at this years Wexford Marathon Team Relay.
We claim (are) to be the best looking, coolest and fastest team on the day and we have the photos to prove it (check out our superlative Running Shirts) and we challenge any team to beat us on
Coolest Team Photo
Most Awesome Team Name
Best Time on the day
We are Laying the smack down, So tag us on your entry to this years marathon, lets have some fun and see if you are cooler than us 40 year old studs.
Starting in July 2018, Google will use mobile page speed as a ranking in their mobile search results.
People want to be able to find answers to their questions as fast as possible — studies show that people really care about the speed of a page. Although speed has been used in ranking for some time, that signal was focused on desktop searches. Recently Google announced that starting in July 2018, page speed will be a ranking factor for mobile searches.
The “Speed Update,” as they are calling it (a new ranking algorithm), will only affect pages that deliver the slowest experience to users and it will only impact a small percentage of queries. It applies the same standard to all pages, regardless of the technology used to build the page. The intent of the search query is still a very strong signal, so a slow page may still rank highly if it has great, relevant content.
So make sure your site loads fast for desktop but especially mobile, if your website is a year or 2 older now time to come in for tune up and get those websites running. Although speed is one element of ranking as Google says it is all about relevant content. Put time into your content, if you have great content this will get results, if it is great content with a flash fast page speed then you are a winner winner chicken dinner.
Over the past year Google has shared how they are preparing to meet the requirements of the GDPR, the new data protection law coming into force on May 25, 2018. Today they are sharing more about important product changes that may impact your Google Analytics data, and other updates in preparation for the GDPR. This is important and requires action even if you are not based in the European Economic Area (EEA).
Product Updates
Today Google introduced granular data retention controls that allow users to manage how long their user and event data is held on googles servers. Starting May 25, 2018, user and event data will be retained according to these settings; Google Analytics will automatically delete user and event data that is older than the retention period you select. Note that these settings will not affect reports based on aggregated data.
Action: Users of Anlaytics should review these data retention settings and modify as needed.
Before May 25, Google will also introduce a new user deletion tool that allows you to manage the deletion of all data associated with an individual user (e.g. site visitor) from Google Analytics and/or Analytics 360 properties. This new automated tool will work based on any of the common identifiers sent to Analytics Client ID (i.e. standard Google Analytics first party cookie), User ID (if enabled), or App Instance ID (if using Google Analytics for Firebase). Details will be available on our Googles Developers site shortly.
Google has been rolling out updates to their contractual terms for many products since last August, reflecting Google’s status as either data processor or data controller under the new law (see full classification of our Ads products). The new GDPR terms will supplement customers current contract with Google and will come into force on May 25, 2018.
In both Google Analytics and Analytics 360, Google operates as a processor of personal data that is handled in the service.
For Google Analytics clients based outside the EEA and all Analytics 360 customers, updated data processing terms are available for their review/acceptance in their accounts (Admin ➝ Account Settings).
For Google Analytics clients based in the EEA, updated data processing terms have already been included in their terms.
If you don’t contract with Google for your use of our measurement products, you should seek advice from the parties with whom you contract.
Updated EU User Consent Policy
Per Googles advertising features policy, both Google Analytics and Analytics 360 customers using advertising features must comply with Google’s EU User Consent Policy. Google’s EU User Consent Policy is being updated to reflect new legal requirements of the GDPR. It sets out your responsibilities for making disclosures to, and obtaining consent from, end users of your sites and apps in the EEA.
Action: Even if you are not based in the EEA, please consider together with your legal department or advisors, whether your business will be in scope of the GDPR when using Google Analytics and Analytics 360 and review/accept the updated data processing terms as well as define your path for compliance with the EU User Consent Policy.
Google say they will continue to share further information on their plans in the coming weeks and will update relevant developer and help center documentation where necessary.
Sean Gallagher with Niall Rec, managing director of graphedia.com. Photo: Steve Humphreys
15th March 2018
Article by Entrepreneur Sean Gallagher in the Sunday Independent on the 25th March 2018
Striking a balance in business between enjoying what we do and making time for family and community is something that many entrepreneurs struggle with. It’s a struggle that design company Graphedia’s founder, Niall Reck, seems to have mastered. A growing business and active role in his community are yielding him both success and fulfilment.
Set up by Niall Reck in 2000 and with offices in Wexford and Kildare, leading digital design company Graphedia employs four staff and has annual revenues of almost €500,000. While it’s in a competitive environment where technology is constantly developing, the company has managed to carve out a successful niche for itself in the areas of web design, graphic design, app development and digital animation.
“We look after everything for our clients from developing traditional company logos and brochure designs to web design, ecommerce websites and SEO, or search engine optimisation. We’re also an authorised Google AdWords partner,” explains Niall. “Our key strengths lie in our creativity, our innovative approach to projects and the fact that we are absolutely passionate about everything digital.”
As he introduces me to the company’s senior developer and programmer, Brendan Doyle, the pair explain what’s required for success.
“It’s all about giving users a better experience, making sites easy to navigate, encouraging engagement and having clearly defined calls to action, whether that is to buy now, sign up, download or click through for more information.
“Today’s websites and apps need to be responsive in how they looks and feel. But they also be to be optimised for specifically-targeted user traffic – and this is where the integration of social media and video come in,” says Niall. “It’s also where Google Analytics and web marketing tools become essential so you know who is visiting your site, how long they are staying, where their eyeballs have gone and where they have clicked though as a result. We used to design for desktops and then adapt for desktop but with 75pc of our clients’ users coming via mobile, we now design for mobile first,” he explains.
The company has built up a diverse mix of clients, mostly from the SME sector, ranging from retail and construction to property, tourism and hospitality to manufacturing, finance and consulting firms. In addition, it looks after the design requirements for a number of local authorities and representative bodies such as chambers of commerce.
It’s a network of customers which Niall has built up over almost 20 years of working for himself as well as from his involvement in a myriad of community, voluntary and business organisations. He is president of the Wexford Chamber of Commerce, a past president of the Rotary Club of Wexford and an active fundraiser for the local hospital. Giving back to his community is important to him.
An outgoing individual, he began working in local bars and hotels during his teens and believes that this helped him develop his strong social and interpersonal skills.
“Business is all about being able to talk to people and read people. It’s something you have to develop and learn through experience,” he says.
Having completed a diploma in product design in Carlow IT, he joined a local IT firm and quickly got to work polishing his design, sales and training skills. After three years, he felt it was time to strike out on his own and so Graphedia was born. “The name for the business came to me in a dream,” he explains. “I just saw the words graphic and media coming together and fusing in a white light to reveal the name Graphedia.
“While I love the name, and it’s well-known now, back then it was funny how much time I had to spend explaining what this hard-to-spell name actually meant and where it came from.”
Just married, he broke the news to his wife Sarah that he was leaving his job and going out on his own. She was hugely supportive and encouraged him to follow his dream.
A qualified accountant, she joined the business in 2005. In the beginning, however, he worked from the couple’s home before moving to the Wexford Enterprise Centre and later managed to buy his current premises. “There have, of course, been many challenges along the way from having to compete with larger, more established businesses to managing cashflows,” admits Niall.
“However, we faced them all head on and if I couldn’t find a way through them I found an alternative way around them,” he adds.
The first five years flew by. As a sole trader in those early years, he looked after everything. “I was still working by myself. If I am honest, I was beginning to feel a bit of a busy fool,” admits Niall. “In 2005, I signed up to do a six-month part-time owner manager’s programme with business consultant and trainer Blaise Brosnan. Blaise helped me undertake a SWOT analysis of the business and also of my own skills. Importantly, he helped me realise where I was spending most of my time, much of which was on non-billable activities.
“I realised that it was time to begin to think and work more strategically. That’s when I decided to take on extra staff, including Sarah, who now looks after the finance and office admin side of the business, to help free me up to focus more on the business development side of things. As a result, I halved my working hours and doubled my turnover,” he adds.
In 2014, in order to extend the company’s reach, he opened a second office in the Kildare Chamber of Commerce hub in Naas.
He also recently added another employee to the team and is now looking at making a further hire in the near future.
“I love this business and the industry,” explains Niall. “From mobile and apps to 3D it’s constantly changing, which is exciting. I see huge potential in the whole 3D animation side of our business. We’ve been including this as part of promotional video for customers for some time now.
“It’s not only hugely effective in improving user experience, but is a real point of differentiation for us as a company. Plus, we love doing this type of work. We see virtual reality and augmented reality as something that will also soon become mainstream in the industry. That’s the great thing about this industry, you have to be constantly moving forward. Our job will always be to serve our customers’ needs no matter what the technological trends of the day are,” he adds.
NIALL’S ADVICE FOR OTHER BUSINESSES
Go with your gut
Our instinct is nature’s way of guiding us. Learn to trust your gut when making decisions. It’s seldom wrong. To become successful at anything, you first have to believe in yourself and learned to trust your own judgement.
Value your team
While in business, it’s vital to value your customers but it’s also important to value your team. They are the lifeblood of any business. Treat them well and make work fun. It is absolutely possible to enjoy the journey while still getting the job done.
Give back if you can
Life is about achieving balance. My formula for happiness is family first, then business and then charity. I believe it is important to give back to your community, whether through supporting your local school, hospital, Chamber of Commerce, Rotary Club or other voluntary initiatives in your area. That’s part of what real success is all about.
The Clanard Court Hotel in Athy, operators of Santas Magical Trail has scooped top ECommerce award at the Kildare Business Awards 2017.
Santa’s Magical Trail – a fun filled and action-packed experience for children young and old!
Now in their 9th year Kildare’s Santa experience was recognised for its ECommerce excellence.
The awards took place in The K Club in November to a full house of over 300 local businesses.
The new ECommerce Website was designed and developed by Graphedia Kidlare, with a host of custom built features to help people book the event and hotel rooms online. The success of the site meant that dates with hotel rooms were sold out within hours.
Event booking engine features
Allows the client to load multiple places by date and time
Allows the client to create multiple products or events
Coupon code and private booking features
Extendable reporting module
Realex payments integration
PDF ticketing with QR codes
REST API to allow external integrations
Hotel booking engine features
Allows the client to load bedrooms by type
The system automatically assigns rooms based on occupancy
Timer on checkout like Ticketmaster to ensure tickets are sold fairly.
Award winning children’s charity Sensational Kids has launched its new website which has been proudly sponsored by Kildare Website Design company Graphedia.
The charity provides affordable and accessible child development services for children of all abilities, including those with special needs and other developmental delays.
The website was built from the ground up, importing data from previous website, it is ECommerce Responsive, with Realex Payments Integration, a donation feature,Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) Marketing, Rich Data Tags for e-commerce and a custom event booking plugin, with PDF tickets with QR barcodes, attendee lists and event reporting.
The collaboration between Sensational Kids and Graphedia came about when Sensational Kids was invited to do a presentation about its work to the Kildare Chamber of Commerce. One of the people listening to the Sensational Kids CEO Karen Leigh as she delivered her presentation was Niall Reck of Graphedia. He instantly offered to build a new website for the multi-award-winning charity as part of its corporate social responsibility efforts.
Karen says of the new website; “We were blown away with the generosity of his offer and even more delighted with the end results. We run an online child development shop as a fundraiser for our early intervention services for children so our website is critical to our funding streams. Since the new website went live recently we have noticed a steady increase in sales from our online child development shop, which is helping us with our fundraising goals. We really can’t thank Niall and his team at Graphedia enough for everything they have done for Sensational Kids.”
Niall Reck of Graphedia says Karen’s presentation inspired him to make his offer to build the website.
“When I heard Karen’s presentation I was inspired to offer her and Sensational Kids whatever services they needed. I saw an opportunity to improve on the website that they had and to make it more user friendly. The challenge was to build a website which has a bespoke design, promotes the services of Sensational Kids, has payment integration, includes a blog, accepts donations and promotes events with a ticketing option. Over two to three months we developed the custom-built website from the ground up with all of these features. It was a pleasure working with Karen and we are delighted with the end result. Graphedia was established 17 years ago in Wexford and we were delighted to have opened our Naas office three years ago.”
Sensational Kids helps over 200 children every month through Occupational Therapy, Speech and Language Therapy, Educational Psychological Assessments, Reading Tuition, Play Therapy and many more services. https://www.sensationalkids.ie
For further information about Sensational Kids, please visit www.sensationalkids.ie, call 045 520900 or drop into the shop and centre in Kildare Business Park, Kildare Town.
Graphedia is proud to announce we’ve just won a top award from Google. Graphedia are certified Google Partners, as a digital agency we have been recognised as a Winner of the 2017 EMEA Mobile Ads Certification Challenge.
One of the Top Average Highest Scores in Ireland
Niall Reck attained the top mark. Google Partners like Graphedia are focusing their efforts towards grasping the rapid advancement of mobile-centric digital advertising.
The award recognises that Graphedia reached one of the top 10 highest average scores in the mobile ads certification challenge in Ireland. Graphedia took the Google Partners Mobile Ads Certification Challenge June 2017 and excelled in the results, demonstrating our expertise in optimising digital strategies across multiple devices. Full details of this here
As Google notes, passing the exam is meant to show that you have “a demonstrated ability to build and optimize high-quality sites, and allows you to promote yourself as a Google accredited mobile site developer.”
Niall Reck from Graphedia said “We are thrilled with the recognition and shows the hard work and dedication the team here put into creating superlative mobile friendly websites for our customers.”
Graphedia Sponsor the ECommerce Award in the 2017 County Kildare Chamber Business Awards. One of the most recognised, reputable business awards in the country.
The awards in November in the K Club, recognise the efforts businesses are making year on year to thrive and succeed.
Graphedia is one of the largest creators of Ecommerce Websites in the South East, with our motto “Create sales while you sleep” and over 5 million Euros in online transactions to date, we are very proud to have Sponsored the Award for the past 3 years and look forward to this year’s event, and wish all applicants the best of luck.
This award category is aimed at businesses keen to show how they are harnessing the latest business thinking and technology to keep them at the cutting edge when selling or trading online.
“With Irish consumers are now spending €850,000 an hour online, up 20 per cent on four years ago, making Ireland one of the fastest growing digital economies in the world. The figure was contained in one of two reports, by Minister for Communications Denis Naughten, highlighting the burgeoning strength of e-commerce in Ireland.
The first report on the macro-economic impact of the internet indicated the digital economy here now encompassed 6 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP), equating to €12.3 billion. However, on the current growth trajectory this will expand to about €21.4 billion or nearly 8 per cent of GDP by 2020.” Source Irish Times
For this category, the judges are looking for evidence of a successful E-commerce website, and selling online. The Business should be forward thinking with a determination to strive for continued success by pushing the boundaries. The winning business in this category should have an excellent appreciation of how new technology can deliver a competitive advantage.
CLOSING DATE FOR ENTRIES IS WEDNESDAY 20TH SEPTEMBER 2017 AT 5PM so get applying
Graphedia are the latest company to achieve EcoMerit Environmental Certification. This leading Digital Design Agency recognises the importance of sustainability in a modern business, and chose EcoMerit as a tool to guide them on their journey, through the Greensave Program with Wexford Chamber of Commerce.
Wexford Chamber alongside Econcertive, Wexford Local Enterprise Office and Wexford County Council have run the GreenSave project. Which aims to provide assistance to Wexford businesses to help them become more sustainable while making savings on their energy, waste and water.
‘It’s all really just common sense’, observed Owner Sarah Reck. ‘We recycle, read our electricity and water meters to help us control our usage and we monitor our business travel. Simple things like making sure we switch off lights and appliances all add up. We avoid printing out documents as much as we can and hence minimise our paper waste.’
The EcoMerit programme helps member organisations across Ireland to measure and improve their environmental performance. Certification Manager Phil Walker said ‘It’s great to work with companies like Graphedia who already have a small carbon footprint but who still seek to make new improvements each year. This year they will implement a policy of buying only sustainably sourced paper. They will also be looking more closely at the impact of their business travel.’
Before the widespread use of the Internet, vandals who wished to make a point—or just make a name for themselves—were limited to physical vandalization. They might grab a can of spray paint and throw their logo on the side of a store or take some other similar action. Today, however, vandals are increasingly moving online, and the resulting activity is known as website defacement. This can come in many forms, including ransomware or hackers hacking, and it could lead your website being marked as dangerous for consumers. Are you prepared for anything like that?
What is Website Defacement?
Website defacement is any activity that changes the appearance or operation of a website without the consent of the owner. It can take any number of forms, such as placing unauthorized images on the website or removing items that the owner wants to have included. Sometimes, website defacement does not change the appearance of the website, but it may alter its functionality through the placement of a malicious line of code on the site. Ransomware is a great example of this, and isn’t something that most website owners are ever aware of until it’s too late.
Don’t forget if google thinks your website has been compromised it will put a note on your website when searching saying “this site may be hacked”, and a message like this is bound to make your customers click on the competitor next in line and not trust what you are selling.
Sometimes it can be down to a poor plugins installed on a website by a user, or the website just not being secure enough.
Still other forms of website defacement take the form of an attack on reputation: hackers may, for example, put up derogatory information about an entity on the entity’s own website. For some, hackers hacking into a website and posting unsavory facts or allegations about the website’s owner is simply the way they operate.
People who engage in website defacement do so for a number of reasons. For some people, it’s just fun to cause chaos and havoc. For others, it may be a form of protest, particularly if they put up their own message on the website of a business or entity that engages in activities with which they disagree. People who engage in website defacement as a form of attack on reputation frequently have a grudge against the owner of the site—and, deserved or not, they feel that hacking into the site is the way to get even.
What Can You Do About Website Defacement?
The best thing to do to protect yourself is to use an established business that specializes in protecting websites like Graphedia.com. Get your Website built properly free from nasty plugins installed with themed websites. We can monitor your site for you and alert you to any website defacement. This frees you to focus on other things, such as running your business or focusing on your cause.
Website defacement can be a disaster, but it doesn’t have to be. Take steps to protect yourself today, contact graphedia.com 053 9144835
Continuing from our success at being awarded Google AdWords Partners for AdWords Search Ads last year, Graphedia have been certified AdWords Mobile specialists under the Google Partner Programme showing
Our new specialization recognizes that Graphedia has demonstrated expertise and sustained client performance in mobile advertising.
The Google AdWords certification is a professional accreditation that Google offers to individuals who demonstrate proficiency in basic and advanced aspects of AdWords. An AdWords certification allows Google to recognize Graphedia as an expert in online advertising.
Achieving Partner status means that we have demonstrated AdWords skill and expertise, met AdWords spend requirements and delivered agency and client revenue growth.
We had a lot of fun being involved and taking part at this years Wexford Marathon, we had two teams enter “The Bride Street Gang” consisting of Niall Reck, Gavin Hayes, Dermot Foley and honorary Bride Street Member Alison Redmond from Kildare. The Second Team was Called “the Graphedia Babes” Which was Helen Sinnott, Laura Halpin, Elaine McMahon and Ger Mulhall.
As part of the excitement and to help us run faster we got printed Limited edition racing T Shirts. See images, designed by Niall.
Happy to report “the Bride Street Gang” came in 7th and The Babes came in 21st. One questions how we done that consider Niall was on the team and Gavin had spent a week on holidays (eating and drinking), on the beer at an Eddie Vedder concert 2 nights before and then enjoyed the Wexford Kilkenny match celebrations the day before 😊 .
Over 100 people entered the marathon and over 30 teams took part in the relay (in what is possible know as one of the toughest marathons in Ireland with the amount of hills involved), all running to raise funds for ‘Its Good 2 Talk’. Friends of ‘Its Good 2 Talk’ Chairperson, Berna Rackard, said “We are so grateful to all of these athletes for their generosity both in terms of time and effort and the funds they have raised for our charity will really make a difference to the work that we do. Thank you so much!”
Enjoy the photos below, hope to see more teams there next year try to take on the might “The Bride Street Gang”
You have just done a search on google for your name, and look there is a competitor paying for top position for your name. A.K.A: They are being parasites (or maybe they don’t know this is happening). Following are some tips to let you know your rights.
A competitor bidding on your company’s name as a search term is frustrating, but it is entirely acceptable by Google.
What can you do if your competitor’s Google ad appears whenever a customer does a Google search for your company’s name?
It depends on the situation. Are they paying for bids using your name as a search term for their ad, or are they paying for your name AND using your business name in their ad? These are two very different things and clarifying which they’re doing will show you what you can do to rectify the situation.
If your competitor is not actually using your name in an ad, but is only bidding on a search term using your name, Google will do nothing. Google’s position is stated on the AdWords website. It reads, “Google will not investigate or restrict the use of trademark terms in keywords, even if a trademark complaint is received.” However, if your company’s name is trademarked, and your competitor is using it in their actual advertising, there are things you can do to rectify the situation.
What can you do if they are using your name in their ad?
The first thing you can do is to complete a complaint form with Google, at this link:
Google are very responsive and will deal with your issue very quickly.
Before you do that, however, make sure you have a valid case to file a complaint. You’ll want to read through the rest of this article, and then take a look at Google’s trademark policies at this link:
Competitors are allowed to bid on your company’s name and/or brand, but they shouldn’t be using it in their ad copy, pretending to be you. The only time they can use it is when they are a reseller of your services or goods. This is called “pawning off” (to get rid of or pass off, usually by deception) and is a parasitic thing to do. In this case, you can submit a complaint to Google (they will sort it out very quickly) or you can take legal action (not so quick, but pawning off is a serious issue, so you may want to take more decisive action).
In some cases, your competitor may not aware they are doing it. This can happen if they have “broad match” switched on in their ad campaign. For example, if your company’s name ends with a generic word, like solicitor or gardener, it simply means they are paying for anything with the word solicitor or gardener in it (like Graphedia Solicitors). They are probably just paying for everything containing the word, solicitor. They are probably not aware they are doing it, unless they check all searched words in their adwords account. Most companies don’t know all the ins and outs of AdWords. In this case, a courtesy email asking them to add your name as a negative keyphrase would stop this from happening.
On the other hand, if they are paying for your business name, and your name is quite unique, like Graphedia, for example, then, you are most likely dealing with a parasite. Your competitor is looking to take business from you. This happens to many and, yes, it has happened to us. It doesn’t just happen to big businesses either. It happens to small business owners, as well. In an odd way, it’s kind of a compliment. It means your competitor sees you as a threat. Should you be honoured? Not really. It took hard word to get where you are!
When you are dealing with a parasite, there are four things you can do to halt their actions.
Send a letter or make a phone call
Pay for your own name on Google
Pay for their name
Start a war
Now, wait just a minute. There is no need to jump to number four just yet. We want to avoid starting a war right away, no need to go Al Capone on them! (Enjoy video below please note they use bad language :)) but keep reading below
1. Send a letter or make a phone call This should be your first option. Either telephone them or send a letter asking if they are aware of what they are doing. This is always the best approach, but it isn’t always done. Why would you do this? They obviously know what they are doing. It’s called professional courtesy and is a good place to start.
2. Pay for your own name on Google Unfortunately, to stop it instantly you should start bidding on your own name, because it is your name, after all, and your website references your name. You will have a higher quality score and, in turn, not have to pay as much as your competitor for the word. We have done it ourselves, and have put some entertaining ads there.
3. Pay for their name You can approach this tit-for-tat, but, to be honest. I really see it only causing a higher bounce rate in your analytics. If someone is looking for you they will normally jump out of a site that doesn’t have your branding on it. On the other hand, however, some marketers might recommend you should be doing this. To be honest, the logic behind this trend seems sound. After all, if someone is typing in a competitor’s business name, they are interested in what your competitor has to offer, right? That means they are probably interested in what you have to offer, as well. While we’re not necessarily advising you to sink to the pathetic depths your competitor did when purchasing your name, we’re also not telling you NOT to. That’s more an ethical issue than a marketing issue. And by “ethical,” we mean, if you don’t use their name as a search term, you can claim to be taking the moral high ground to anyone who asks–or those who don’t ask, but you just happen to tell!
4. Start a war
One serious downside to bidding on a competitor’s brand name is that you are basically starting a war. They and/or you are openly inviting your competition to bid on their and/or your brand name to start poaching some of your potential sales. While bidding on their brand name will make it more expensive for them to bid on their own name, the same thing applies the other way around. Their bidding on your brand name makes it more expensive for you to convert on your own brand. We know of one funny story where two advertisig agencies were going at it with each other for a while. It even got to the stage where one of the companies created an adult orientated site based around the other company name, so when you searched for “so and so”, you got “ooh la la”. As funny as this sounds, it ended up messy and the two companies reverted to option one, making a phone call to each other.
If this has happened to you, hopefully this article helps. It’s a good idea to do a regular search of your business and domain names on Google every now and then. You might be surprised to see who is paying for your name.
Costs for advertising on google can be as little as 10 cent per click
Graphedia Are very Proud to be a Sponsor of this years #wexfordmarathonWexford Marathon 11th of June 2017, in support of the nominated charity “Its good to talk”……
We will also have a couple of Graphedia Teams for the relay so look forward to whooping all of you who try and get the title 😊 Are you going to take on the Challenge
Register today for either full marathon or team relay. Visit www.wexfordmarathon.com for more details
9th of April 2017 over 2000 people run and walk the 10 k & 10 mile Hope & Dream to help raise money for 2 fantastic charities, Wexford Home Hospice & the Hope Centre. 2 great charities that care for people diagnosed with cancer and also care for the families affected by Cancer.
There isn’t a soul in the world who hasn’t been touched or affected by cancer, loved ones & friends taken away from us too soon. Graphedia has been one of the proud sponsors of Hope & Dream since it was created over 6 years ago. We were asked would we get involved by the creators at the time John O’Leary (My Sport), Alan Maher (Maher Consulting) and Tom Herlihy (Turkuts Barbers)
I remember them talking passionately about the Hope Centre and the Share a Dream foundation (at the time it was the share a dream foundation hence the name the name Hope & Dream) and the great work they do for kids to grandparents affected by Cancer and how they were going to organise a 10 mile run. I asked what they would like, just a logo they said. They spoke so passionately I offered the logo no problem, plus any graphics they need and whatever website they would like. I remember that day designing the logo, which is still used to this day.
We at Graphedia have been proud supporters of the Hope & Dream 10 and I have been running the 10 mile for 5 years now, Battling fitness & Injuries every year, running through rain and cold winds and don’t get me started on the hills of Enniscorthy 😊. But I think this is a good thing, it reminds us of the pain and the struggle people go through on a daily basis and my little aches and pains are nothing in the scheme of things, but it helps us create awareness.
Family Run, John O Leary (cousin), Margaret Reck (Sister) and Me, before the run
We run / walk to remember someone and raise money for charity, but it is you the carers, you are the ones we do it for, it is your compassion and love for people that inspires us to raise money, you never want for anything, never complain or strike. You are there for people coming to terms with their illness which I can imagine is heart breaking, but you are also there for the fathers / Mothers, the Sons / Daughters the Brothers / Sisters who when alone struggle with their own emotions, always there a shoulder to cry on. You are always there and for this we thank you.
Sarah & Niall Reck at 2017 Event, after the run
I hope going forward that you get more state aid to help you with the amazing work you do, I hope to see you all at the next event to help support these great people. In the meantime, if you have read this simple post and you feel you want to do something to support your local hospice or Hope Centre, come run / walk the race with us next year.
If you like you can donate the 2 charities at these links.
A new mental health awareness campaign was launched this week by Mayor Frank Staples and the Wexford County Council. The campaign takes the form of a series of 4 posters, each poster depicts a person removing their happy-face mask to show their “unhappy face” underneath indicating their true feelings.
The team at Graphedia where honoured to be asked to design up the posters for this campaign, photography by Paddy Donavon. It involved setting the mode, colour and tone of the series of posters and then using photoshop to create 3 dimensional masks out for their happy smiling photos and super imposing these into hands over the sadder darker image of people with depression. See samples above and below
Each poster carries the tag line “ASK, one conversation can save a life.”
If you were to stop people on the streets, around 80 per cent of people would say that they know someone who suffers or has committed suicide, so it touches a lot of people both directly and indirectly.
At the Launch their was fascinating and very open stories of depression from Mayor Frank Staples and Alan O’Mara how it affected their lives, how they carried a mask for years, until it got too heavy to bare, 2 very inspiring stories that let people know it is ok to have depression and to speak about it with others.
So the campaign is for everyone, sometimes to be afraid to ASK for help, and don’t be afraid to Ask someone out there “Are you OK” you might need to say it 2-3 times before they let down there mask.
Well Done, to Frank, Wexford County Council and all the team involved in this truly inspiring campaign for Mental Health.
When you think of major holidays for eCommerce websites, you probably think of Christmas, Valentine’s Day, and Mother’s Day. Most people wouldn’t think of St. Patrick’s Day as a holiday people spend a lot of money on. However, according to the History Channel, more than $4.14 billion dollars are spent on St. Patrick’s Day in the U.S. alone. With some 80 million people around the world with Irish ancestry, this holiday is one online retailers simply can’t afford to ignore. Sure isn’t it great to be Irish.
But what can you do to make sure you don’t miss out on your pot of gold?
Here are a few tips for getting your eCommerce site (and customer base) in the St. Patrick’s Day spirit.
Be Creative
While millions of pints of Guinness are consumed between St. Patrick’s Day and the night that follows, it doesn’t mean you need to focus solely on a few aspects of the celebration to create a hit. What would customers outside of Ireland like to buy, some authentic Irish item, novelty items, Irish Gift Hampers, Handmade Irish Goods etc etc. Advertise anything you can that works with the celebration, from fun hats and shirts, to gadgets
Think about how many people are going to be buying clothes, gadgets, and party favors to celebrate the night, before the celebration even begins. Use this as inspiration to bring people to your eCommerce site.
Green is Good, but Don’t Overdo it
What do you think of when you think of St. Patrick’s Day? For most, the color green comes to mind immediately. Of course every business out there is going to be going green in early March to show that they’re embracing the Irish. While adding green accents is certainly a good idea, don’t overdo it. Changing your website’s entire color scheme is probably a bit too much (I know we do it, but we are different ). Instead, add splashes of green here and there where it fits. Likewise, you don’t need leprechauns or pots of gold all over the place (Unless you are doing something really clever & Creative with them, like what we do, we convert all staff images into Leprechauns, and then use these as part of the marketing message).
Use Words and Numbers Related to Luck
Being lucky is associated with St. Patrick’s Day, so try to work that in somewhere. Luck is considered a positive attribute, and connecting that to your brand can help increase sales. Use the keyword “Lucky” for your discount code or work in the number seven, which is considered a lucky number. Offer seven percent off or put some products on sale for €7. Four Leaf Clover, Buy three items get the Fourth for Free
Run a Sale
While people may not buy as many gifts on St. Patrick’s Day as they do for Christmas or Valentine’s Day, a sale is still going to bring in extra revenue. Have a weekend sale featuring anything related to St. Patrick’s Day. Remember to advertise that sale on all of your social media, too.
These are just a few ways you can increase your sales on St. Patrick’s Day.
Don’t be afraid to get creative and come up with unique ways of celebrating this holiday!
Some of our St Patrick’s Day Marketing we ran on Twitter, Facebook & Instagram, Don’t forget to follow us to see all our shenanigans
Graphedia are proud to be one of the sponsors at the 2017 Wexford Business awards, The awards now in their 9th year, the Wexford Business Awards, are county wide awards that recognise the entrepreneurialism, innovation, diversity and talent of businesses of all sizes and across all sectors.
“We were very pleased to be able to support the most prestigious and largest business awards in the South East which has grown in stature and size since its inception, We have been sponsoring the awards for a few years now and it is a magnificent event” said Niall Reck, Director of Graphedia.
The awards honour Wexford’s industry leaders through the acknowledgement of innovative business processes, product development, enterprise, sustainability and overall business success. Central to the ethos of the Wexford Business Awards is sound environmental and green business practices, as the awards take into consideration the green credentials of all entries, across all categories.
Winners and runners-up in each award category and the overall 2017 Wexford Business of the Year Award, sponsored by Wexford County Council, will be announced at the official Gala Awards Ceremony by host, Hector Ó hEochagáin, on Friday 26th May 2017 in Clayton Whites Hotel.
Launching the Wexford Business Awards 2017 on 6th March was (L-R) Tom Enright, Chief Executive Wexford County Council, Karl Fitzpatrick, President Wexford Chamber, Tracey Morgan, Office & Events Manager Wexford Chamber and Niall Reck, Director Graphedia. Pic: Ger Hore
Some top tips to help you promote your business Online for the lovers out there
Do you Know Shoppers are surfing for cards, chocolates, flowers and jewellery for their loved ones.
Don’t forget to check what is trending among hotel breaks and candlelit meals.
Searches for romantic gifts soar by 427% in February as people get ready for valentines day
Source Google
Think about it
What do we all order, Flowers, cards, gifts and Chocolates. Some of those lucky couples even go out for a meal (romantic meal for two, maybe an expensive meal for two) in a location close to home and the luckier ones get to stay over night in a “5 Star Hotel”, or “Luxury Hotel” in a location not so close to home. Is your business targeting any of these Key Phrases, enticing couples to your store, or your town or your country.
What would you type in to find your service.
Think what would a man type in to google lying off on the sofa and maybe 1 or 2 nights before Valentines (possibly on the day) searching on his mobile phone last minute.
Then Think what a woman would type in 1 week before valentines (it is true, women are better prepared at these things )
Top Tips for AdWords for this month
Keep Budget uncapped and increase mobile bid adjustments by at least 30% between 5pm and 10pm.
All of us here at Graphedia are conscious of security when it comes to using the Internet. They say that practice makes perfect, and we completely agree. That is why we are constantly improving on our techniques to practices to be bets at what we do. That’s how we can spot a dodgy site from a mile away. Yet, we understand that some of our customers and even our customer’s customers may not have the time to keep up with all the security changes that are going on.
We are not the only company who think this way, Google are also very proactive in protecting their customers from threats on the Internet. One of their latest protection ideas revolve around their web browser – Google Chrome. Beginning January 31st, they are making some subtle changes to the way Chrome recognises websites and how secure they are.
What Is An SSL?
SSL stands for “secure sockets layer” and is a form of security for sites that handle sensitive information such as customer names, phone numbers, addresses and credit card numbers. It creates a secure connection between a customer’s web browser and the server of the company they’re interacting with. Here’s an example. Let’s say you need to talk to your friend about some personal conflicts going on within your life. Would you rather talk to them in public where you run the risk of people overhearing you or would you rather have your conversation in private? An SSL gives the company and the customer the ability to communication and share information, in private.
What Changes Are Going To Be Made To Chrome?
On current versions of Chrome, when you visit a website without an SSL certificate you will see a very discrete exclamation mark beside the website address (picture below).
Current version of Chrome
This is not overly obvious to the end user, but changes being rolled out in version 56 are a little more obvious. As you can see from the below picture, the basic exclamation mark has morphed into a more obvious “Not Secure” message.
Proposed Version 56 of Chrome
Google are not stopping there, in future versions, they plan on making more changes to Chrome. One of those changes will see the new “Non Secure” message being made even more prominent by making it a bright red font to grab your attention.
Full warning in red font is planned for future upgrades
Will This Have Any Implications For My Website?
Yes, I’m afraid so – it will have implications for all websites that do not have an SSL certificate (only when users are using Google Chrome 56+). While your sites will continue to function normally, your users will see these security notices in their browser. Some users may choose to ignore them, but the fact of the matter is, everyone is concerned about security. This means that as time goes by, users will start to get uneasy when visiting your site and eventually avoid your site altogether.
Are There Any Major Benefits To Having An SSL Certificate?
Loads – absolutely loads.
End to End encryption
Prevents eavesdropping on user data (ISP’s, Not Nice Governments etc.)
Prevents man in the middle attacks and phishing attacks.
Should always be used when accepting credit cards.
Improves your SEO rankings in Google.
Improves customer trust.
Is There Anything I Can Do?
There sure is, but it will involve the obvious – purchasing an SSL certificate for your website.
Contact Niall here in Graphedia and he will fill you in on how to go about getting one for your website.
Dark Web : the part of the World Wide Web that is only accessible by means of special software, allowing users and website operators to remain anonymous or untraceable.
A little bit to help you understand the good, the bad and the ugly of “the dark web”.
By now, pretty much everyone is aware that their government can track what they do online. For this reason, the dark web is a valuable tool for those who have no interest in being followed. The dark web is, simply put, a part of the Internet that is not indexed by search engines, not easily accessible to everyone, and anonymous.
How the Dark Web Works
The dark web uses the Internet for communication between machines, just as “normal” websites do. However, accessing the dark web requires users to have specific software or configurations not available to most people.
The most popular domain suffix in the dark web is “.onion.” This has nothing to do with small, pungent vegetables; rather, it is a reference to onion routing, a technique that uses encrypted information layered like the leaves of an onion. A full exploration of how it works is beyond the scope of this discussion. However, suffice to say, onion routing makes it much easier to hide online activity.
Users of the dark web frequently use Tor software. Tor is an acronym for “The Onion Router” and is a part of the onion routing setup. While it is not required to use Tor, it is far and away the most popular method of accessing the dark web.
Problems with the Dark Web
Of course, anonymity can lead to problems, and the dark web is no exception. It has been used for such unsavory activities as weapon and drug sales, contracts to engage in illegal activities, and so on.
One popular website was the Silk Road. The Silk Road was essentially an online market where people could purchase any number of illegal items using bitcoin currency. The United States federal government investigated the site and, in October of 2013, shut it down and arrested its founder. Ross Ulbricht was charged with conspiracy to traffic narcotics, computer hacking, and money laundering. (There were also issues with a murder-for-hire case, but that case is still pending.)
Still, as with anything else, the dark web does have good uses. For example, in some countries where free speech is restricted, it is used for political activities.
Be aware that—even on the dark web—it might still possible for a determined government actor to identify and track activity. Thus, users should not assume they are completely anonymous, and should govern themselves accordingly.
So there you have it, if you think the regular web has its weirdos, this is the twilight zone of the web (The Good, The Bad & The Ugly) that you should stay clear of unless you really really have too.
Niall has been a member of the Rotary Club of Wexford for over 5 years, lately having become the President of the club. At this years Christmas Party Niall was awarded the Paul Harris Fellowship Award.
Jurgen Sassman, Hon Sec of Rotary Wexford, also addressed the Rotarians. He commented on the success of the Club under the watchful eye of Niall and drew our attention to the wonderful website and much improved social media platform of Wexford Rotary, something that has been driven by Niall through his company Graphedia.com here in Wexford. Jurgen, aided and abetted by Maura Bell, currently VP of our Club, then presented Niall with a prestigious Paul Harris Fellowship Award. Rotarians have a tradition of honouring individuals who have made significant contributions towards the wellbeing of their Club. Niall has certainly earned this accolade. Hearty congratulations on this Award came Niall’s way – very well deserved!!
On behalf of his wife Sarah and himself Niall said “ I know the great people that have been given this award in the past, I am truely honoured to be given this fellowship, Thank you to my Vice President Maura Bell (who used to be my boss in Whites hotel 20 odd years ago) and a big thank you to founding memeber Jurgen Sassmanhausen for his kind words, a man that used to teach me German in school, almost 25 years ago. I look forward to your continuing support in the New Year and in the meantime we would like to wish you and your families our very best wishes, and a peaceful 2017.”
What is the Paul Harris we hear you say?
The presentation of Paul Harris Fellow recognition is The Rotary Foundation’s way of expressing its appreciation for a substantial contribution to its humanitarian and educational programs. It is named for our founder, Paul Harris, a Chicago lawyer who started Rotary International with three business associates in 1905.
Rotarians often designate a Paul Harris Fellow as a tribute to a person whose life demonstrates a shared purpose with the objectives of the Rotary Foundation. Today we have the honour and pleasure of recongising Niall Reck as he becomes a Paul Harris Fellow.
When a person is recognised as a Paul Harris Fellow, they are presented with a Certificate signed by the Rotary International President and the Chairman of the Trustees of The Rotary Foundation, and a lapel pin and medallion. The contribution to The Rotary Foundation can be made in one sum or by cumulative giving over a number of years. Individuals can make a personal contribution or the contribution can be from a club, a company or business.
From all of us here we wish Niall the continued success with rotary as it keeps him out of the office for a while 🙂
Congratulations to Team at Kildare Now for Winning the Ecommerce Social Media Award at this Years North Kildare Business Awards 2016 held in the K Club in November. Commercial Manager of KildareNow Anna Fortune accepted the award with Content Manager Senan Hogan and Multimedia Account Manager Louise Cunningham. Launched only 15 months ago, KildareNow won the E-Commerce & Social Media Category in which KBC bank and The Irish Biltong Co were also nominated.
North Kildare Chamber Business Awards 2016 in association with Clark, were held on the 18th November in The K Club. The awards are county wide awards recognising the entrepreneurialism, innovation, diversity and talent of businesses across all sectors. The awards honour industry leaders through the acknowledgement of innovative business processes, product development, enterprise, sustainability and overall business success.
Graphedia are very proud to have Sponsored the Award for the past 2 years, This award category is aimed at businesses keen to show how they are harnessing the latest business thinking and technology to keep them at the cutting edge when selling or trading online. For this category, the judges are looking for evidence of successful E-commerce website, selling online, with good use of social media . The Business should be forward thinking with a determination to strive for continued success by pushing the boundaries. The winning business in this category should have an excellent appreciation of how new technology can deliver a competitive advantage.
Graphedia also supplied all the graphics and Video animation for this prestigious event
Graphedia have been awarded Partner status with google on their expertise with Google Adwords. The Google AdWords certification is a professional accreditation that Google offers to individuals who demonstrate proficiency in basic and advanced aspects of AdWords. An AdWords certification allows Google to recognize Graphedia as an expert in online advertising.
Achieving Partner status means that we have demonstrated AdWords skill and expertise, met AdWords spend requirements and delivered agency and client revenue growth.
We now are credited with having the partner badge on our website showing that Google recognizes our agency as an AdWords certified partner.
Niall Reck the owner of Graphedia says “It is great for our company, we are absolutely thrilled with the partner status, we strive to moving forward and giving our customers the best and latest service, it shows the hard work we here at graphedia put into achieving results for our customers.”
Seventh Annual Wexford Business Expo Brings Local Businesses Online
On Thursday November 10th, Wexford County Hall became the home for Google and Microsoft as the 2016 Wexford Business Expo provided local businesses with the knowledge and practical advice to establish and develop effective online sales strategies for their products and services.
Featuring many high profile speakers, who discussed the various factors that contribute to creating a successful e-commerce strategy. A particular highlight of this year’s Expo was the Google Digital Garage workshops, which took place throughout the day. The Google Digital Garage, which has been described as the ‘Growth Engine for Digital Skills’, enables users to discover the complete range of Google tools that are at their disposal and how they can be used to maximise the effectiveness of an online presence.
The 2016 Wexford Business Expo was organised by the Wexford Chamber of Commerce, in conjunction with Wexford County Council, lead sponsors Zurich Insurance and ESET and media partner, the Sunday Business Post.
Graphedia Also produced all the branding for the Expo, from Logo Design, Advertising Design, Posters, website, Banners and the Animated Promotional Video
Look Alive! Facebook Has Made Changes That You Should Be taking Full Advantage Of!
SURPRISE! Facebook has done it again!
In a bid to keep the platform relevant and most useful for your business and for its users, Facebook have recently made changes to reflect how its users are reacting to and engaging with posts
There are a few obvious changes in the last week or two that you may have noticed and some that you might not yet be aware of. Never fear – that’s why we’re here – to keep you up to date with all the latest goings on in Social Media land.
Before on the left, After on the Right
Firstly Changes to the page layout
You may have also noticed that there have been a number of changes to the profile page layout of your business pages.
The profile picture has been moved to the left of the screen, making your cover shot bigger and more visible. Be sure to have a look at your cover shot and check that the design and layout still look right after this move. You now have more precious space to play with! Call your superlative Graphic Designer (Ahem, that would be us!) to design a cover shot for your business today!
Your Call to Action button such as the ‘Message’ or Call Us’ or ‘Watch Video’ or ‘Shop Now’ buttons are now much bigger and are located to the bottom right of the cover shot. Make sure you are happy with that Call to Action button and that it is the most useful Call To Action for your business.
Your page navigation is now located to the left of the cover shot, below the profile picture, meaning your like button is now more visible and less crowded than before! Score!
Reviews, Maps, Videos and Images are now all much more visible in a completely new column to the right hand side of your timeline. Again, have a good look at this precious real estate and be sure you are making the most of it!
(PS, if you like this article…and we know you do!..please hit the share button below. Go on, share the love!)
Secondly the changes to the algorithm and what they mean for your business:
Facebook have conducted their research and found that;
Facebook users are more inclined to share text only based posts written by their friends, but not so inclined to share text only posts/updates written by business pages. If we think about that, it makes sense. Consumers are savvy and know when they are being marketed to. They will, however, react to a great image, a useful video or a handy infographic, when posted by a business.
So what does that mean for your business? Well, Facebook have decided to pull back from text only posts on business pages, meaning you will get less reach and therefore less traffic from text only posts.
The Solution? Simple, get funky with images, videos and really useful graphics and avoid text only, self-promoting posts. Try to offer something useful and engaging to your audience when posting.Facebook, however, did go on to pinpoint that switching to a more media/link-orientedstatus update will definitely make up for the loss.
You say what now? Well, simply put, if you are posting a status update and you wish to add a link to your post, you should now use the sharing tool directly from the website or article that you wish to share and this will get more traction in your posts than simply embedding a link/pasting a link into your post!
What does this mean for your business?
It means get busy asking people to share your blog articles, your content and your videos directly from your website and you’ll see the benefits!
Well, that’s all folks – your handy social media update…just cause we love ya!
Don’t forget to share the love and post this article to your Facebook page using the Facebook share button directly below this article
For most of us in business, entrepreneurship could be defined like this: “I don’t have a 9-5. I have a when I open my eyes to when I close my eyes”…
Or like this…
“I am the maker of my products & services, the marketer, the accountant, the head of HR, the tax guy and the lunch lady!”
Running your own business ain’t for the faint hearted, that’s for sure. It takes graft, determination, business smarts, stubbornness and definitely a little madness!
There are, however, some awesome pearls of wisdom that have been passed down by the entrepreneurial greats along the way. And taking heed of those pearly words, could just make that path a little less crazy and complicated!
Here are some words from the greats to keep us motivated this week…..Gather round entrepreneurs!
Steve Jobs:“Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow know what you truly want to become”
Richard Branson:“If someone offers you a great opportunity and you’re not sure you can do it, say yes – then learn how to do it later”
James Dyson: “While Developing my vacuum, I went through 5126 failed prototypes and my life’s savings over 15 years. But the 5127th prototype worked, and the Dyson brand became the best-selling bagless vacuum brand in the United States”
Henry Ford: “When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it.”
Timothy Ferriss:“Focus on being productive, instead of busy”
Yoda:“Do or do not. There is no try!” …(Yes, yes, we know Yoda is technically not an entrepreneur but he is one of the greats, so he had to make an appearance in our opinion!)
Mark Zuckerberg:“If you just work on stuff that you like and you’re passionate about, you don’t have to have a master plan with how things will play out.”
Bill Gates: “The first rule of any technology applied in a business is that automation applied to an efficient operation will magnify the efficiency. The second is that automation applied to an inefficient operation will magnify the inefficiency”
Well, we feel inspired – we hope you do too!
And we also wanted to add our own note on the great Bill Gate’s words on automation. You see, at Graphedia, getting our clients more online leads and sales is our business and let’s just say that business is gooooood! 😉
We believe that if you are following the sage advice above and you are working on something you are passionate about, you have a great product or service and an efficient business, then automation of your business is a step that can take your business to the next level and beyond.
What do we mean by automation? Well, its simple really, we mean driving warm/interested leads to your website and turning those leads into sales for your business through the use of online sales funnels, SEO, paid traffic and more.
P.S. We have a great summer offer running right now – sign up to 6 months of Google Adwords with us and receive a FREE €90 google adwords voucher! (We’re nice like that!!) Grab ‘em while they last.
You might have noticed we have launched a ‘little project’ we have been working on for almost 10 YEARS!!
OUR BRAND NEW SUPER FUNKY, COMPLETELY OVERHAULED WEBSITE IS FINALLY LIVE!
Ta-da! Fan-fare! Trumpets! Drum Roll! Dancing Boys ….Ok, maybe not that last piece!
We are so excited to launch our new look Graphedia.com website that has been in the making for almost 10 years.
Phew, that was a lot of work and a long time coming!
The team here at Graphedia have been flat out working on a crazy amount of funky new websites for our clients that we barely had time to create our own super cool new site (See? We look after you first!)
Graphedia.com is a state of the art, mobile responsive site that we custom built, from scratch, to meet our own very specific company needs. Yep, we are just that good 😉
Our Creative-Juicy Bits!
We wanted to be able to showcase the very best of our work, our coolest designs, our most awesome apps and in general we wanted you to see all of our creative-juicy bits! (We even thought about making it glow in the dark!)
It was also important to us that we could give you heaps more great info about our services, provide a place for support and help for our clients and allow our clients to pay for our services right there on our website. Haaandy!
The site was custom designed , from scratch, with a whole new look, new branding and a heap of techy stuff that our incredible team of super-nerds worked on diligently until it was just right.
In fact, excuse us while we nerd out for a second;
The Techy Stuff
Graphedia.com is;
Fully responsive site, built on top of Twitter Bootstrap.
Custom developed AJAX portfolio section & portfolio sliders.
Custom developed share feature.
Custom social media feeds.
Parallax scrolling effects.
Uses the latest JavaScript and CSS3 techniques.
We used only minimal off the shelf plugins which increases the security of our site, as well as increase load times.
We use the latest caching techniques, gZIP compression and minification of our code to serve our site as fast as possible.
SEO optimised.
We use the latest SDK’s from Google+, Facebook & Twitter to analyse social interaction with the new website.
Full use of the latest techniques to get the most out of Google Bot such as “Schema” tags and “rel” tags on links.
Ah, that felt good!
Ok, time for the sentimental bit:
I (Niall) want to extend a HUMUNGOUS thank you to my awesome team who drove this project and put up with all of my often picky, perfectionist requests! Sarah, Brendan, Corey, – you guys are legends (Hi Bobby, thank you too). And a huge thanks to my kids too for badgering me every morning for the last year – “Dad, Dad, is it done yet?”
And of course, a big shout out, to our fabulous clients. Without you, we wouldn’t be able to do what we love and nerd out on design on a daily basis!
Why not take some time to have a good mooch around the site and get to know us?
Enjoy!
(The Interwebs Just Got Safer!!)
You know when you browse a website, you surf the net, you buy something online or just generally interact with websites? Well, have you ever wondered what happens to your personal data? Or how is it that marketers always know exactly which products you have been looking at and which ads to send your way?
Well, that is all done through … The Magic of Google Analytics.
Google Analytics is a Google product that essentially allows businesses to look at your interaction with their website and to check out how much time visitors spent on their sites, which pages they looked at, which products they browsed before eventually whipping out that credit card and making a purchase!
In the past, the communications between those businesses’ websites and Google Analytics was not always secure. Sites using HTTPS did benefit from secure (encrypted) communication between their website and Google Analytics, but those sites using HTTP did not and so personal data was not always secure.
Big Changes
However, that all changed last Wednesday when Google announced that they will now be securing all traffic communication of websites using Google Analytics, whether the website is HTTPS or not.
Google announced that “…with the increase in privacy related concerns we have made the decision to secure all communication to and from Google Analytics, protecting our clients, our client’s end users, and the broader internet”
So, What Does This Mean For You?
Well, for you, the end user (i.e. when you are browsing a website yourself) you can breath easy knowing that the data that is collected when you browse or interact with any website, either HTTP or HTTPS, is now encrypted and much more secure.
Essentially the inteweb is safer!
What Does This Mean If You Are A Business With A Website?
For you the business owner, this means two things:
You can now tell your customers that their data is even more secure! Yay! Bonus!
There is a downside, however for websites with SSL’s. Encrypted traffic is ever so slightly slower than unencrypted traffic and so you may see a slight increase in bounce rate – ie people not patient enough to wait an extra second before they leave your site! Did you really want them there anyway we ask you?
That’s about it. We hope you found this little explainer blog useful.