• Why use Responsive Web Design?Why use Responsive Web Design?
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  • What is Responsive Web Design?What is Responsive Web Design?
  • Contact David Thatcher of Hard Web - Just like they did!Contact David Thatcher of Hard Web - Just like they did!

Gold Coast web design & SEO professional with over 20 years experience
Search marketing and SEO specialist - Experienced Google Ads Management service provider

Webmaster David Thatcher Hard Web Gold Coast

David Thatcher web designer, SEO and Google Ads campaign manager Gold Coast
Photo: Brobes

is a Gold Coast SEO, web design and Google Ads Management business based in Broadbeach Waters in Qld Australia.

I am the Hard Web proprietor and my name is .

I am motivated by wanting to help my customers make more money by getting them more leads for a cheaper price per lead than any other method (except referral).
In business having more customers usually equals higher profits, and more money coming in can ensure a business has longevity, stability and importantly can afford the time to explore it's own possibilities.

I have been a self-employed web designer since 1999 and I specialise in responsive web design and all things Google.

I will custom design a professional "responsively designed" website for your business which will generate new leads for you via search engines such as Google which is the big player in the search market, but also Bing/Yahoo who are now merged for search purposes.


Some definitions

SEO
stands for search engine optimisation and means trying to improve your website's ranking on the SERP's. or search engine results pages.

RWD or responsive web design is a web design technique or method used in making a webpage that will fit on both small and large windows (or viewports) such as a mobile phone or wide screen TV.
More about What is Responsive Web Design?


RWD uses the latest web standards CSS3 and HTML5 and surprisingly Google has given the nod to responsive web design.
Google says it prefers RWD than the other option which is having two websites, one for mobile phones and one for everything else.



Having a website that is listed on the organic (free or unpaid) listings of search engines will make your business more money by getting you more leads for you to convert into customers so you can generate more profit.

I do not require my customers to agree to any lock-in contracts and I proudly do all the web work myself and do not sub contract any design, SEO or SEM work to overseas labour.
I do not resell hosting or domain name registration but can organise that for you with all registrations in your name, you retain all codes and can transfer all services I provide to other providers if you desire or if I die in a fiery auto crash.

I recommend certain hosts and registrars but I am not responsible for their failures and outages.

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How will I get you more leads?

Search Marketing is advertising on Search Engine Results pages (or SERPs)

Search Marketing is advertising on search engine results pages or SERPs.

The answer is by making you a Google friendly website that will rank highly in Google searches for your targeted keywords, this is called SEO or search engine optimisation.

Also if you choose I will set up a Google Ads campaign for your website to get immediate "clicks" (visits) while the SEO strategy is building.
This is called SEM or search engine marketing.

Together they are called search marketing and the link is that you are advertising your business on the search engine results page (or SERP).

SEO is free advertising and SEM is paid advertising.

SEO is Search Engine Optimisation

I love doing SEO as it is very satisfying to see visitor traffic grow as a result of my work and if my client has a good business they will make a lot more money from the new customers that this low cost form of advertising generates.

I have had some great SEO results for my clients which have lead, in some cases, to dramatic turnover increases for their businesses.

SEO is the practice of raising a website's organic rankings for a targeted list of search words and phrases.
Organic results are also called 'natural', 'not paid' or 'free' listings and are not to be confused with the 'paid' or 'sponsored' listings.

I have done SEO on both new sites that I have designed and on pre-existing websites that I did not design and I believe my SEO work is amongst the best and cheapest on the Gold Coast!

Read more about my Gold Coast SEO services.

Being able to use the Google Analytics tool to accurately measure the visitor traffic and record which search queries that the visitor used to find your website is one of the major reasons why I am good at SEO.

Being able to test different SEO (or SEM) practices and then see if they work or not defines a new "scientific" testing method behind the advertising dollar spend.

The so-called "new advertising" which is basically online advertising is made up of SEO together with SEM with the most globally successful SEM product being Google Ads formerly known as AdWords.

The future of advertising is online because of user volume and it's superiority as a method of advertising lies in it's ability to measure it's results and use metrics such as ROI (return on investment) in a more meaningful way.
A new advertising metric called cost per conversion essentially tells an advertiser how much it cost to get a sale which is pretty much the holy grail of advertising.

David Booth asks us the question "If you sell a product for $10 with a margin of $2 and your Google Ads cost per conversion is $1 then how much would you budget to spend on Google Ads? (formerly known as AdWords)".

The answer is that you would budget an unlimited amount or as much as you could afford to spend - because every dollar you spend on Google Ads gives you $1 in profit.
This would be subject to the law of diminishing returns but I hope you understand the amazing potential of being able to accurately apply this metric to an online business.

Ring me now on (07) 5526 2939 to discuss how I can improve your rankings for the big 3 search providers, Google©, Yahoo© and Bing©.
NB. Because of the dominant (< 90%) percentage of search engine user market share of Google's users in Australia, getting a ranking of say 4th or 5th in Google will generate a lot more visitor traffic than even the combined traffic generated by a #1 rank in both Yahoo and Bing.

My knowledge of what works in SEO (and what doesn't work) is based on my own SEO strategies that have been refined and ultimately proven successful for me and my clients over the last 19 years.

 

On my webpage devoted to SEO you can read some of the latest news about SEO including Pigeon, Hummingbird, Semantic search and other current SEO issues.


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Social Marketing for business - 1

Google My Business pages

Google Places and Google+ business pages are now gone and Google My Business is an umbrella name for accessing Google+, Analytics and your YouTube channel as well as Google+ insights and you can start a hangout there too.

Having a good Google My business page has massive repercussions for the way Google lists you on the Google SERPs (seach engine results pages) including both your Google Ads listings and your organic listings.

One of the boosts you get is from an extra line in the SERP which outlines who has publicly recommended your business, see an example from a customer of mine below.
Google SERP showing Google My Business social annotation to the organic listing


Your Google My Business page is also very important because it handles reviews of your business and your Google map listings which are now fully being administrated by Google My Business after a transition time when the map listings contained blended results from Google Places and Google+ pages.

Please note that as of early July 2014 the profile picture is no longer shown on search results pages (SERPs) for reasons not specified by Google.

Screenshot showing Google+ profile authorship benefits of profile picture and article byline


There are many other reasons why you should have an optimised Google My Business page for your business and I can help you get the small shield which says "verified local business" which means your Google map listing is more likely to show up for relevant searches and be listed in a higher position.

For help with your Google My Business page and a properly integrated Google+ personal profile page please contact me call 07 5526 2939.

You can also start by going to the Google forum regarding Google My Business.


Google My Business more blah

The integration of your Google My Business page whether local business, brand or company is now essential and non-negotiable for search engine optimisation success.

Social Marketing for business - 2

Facebook

Facebook is the world's leading social networking website and has changed over time to accomodate business interests.

I recommend you have a Facebook business page linked to your Facebook personal profile and you can treat your Facebook business page as your business blogging page where you make announcements and offers.

You can however opt to just have a Facebook business account without linking it to a profile.

Please visit the Hard Web Facebook page where you can see the page but you can only interact with the page and for instance, 'like' Hard Web...but only after you sign in or sign up to Facebook which is their way of enticing you to join Facebook.

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Social Marketing - personal

Facebook and Google My Business (GMB) don't require you to have a personal profile linked to your business page but I advise that you do link your FB or GMB personal profiles to your business pages and that your FB and G+ business pages have your website listed and "linked" in the case of Google My Business because you get a small tick saying "linked website" which is another symbol of trust.

Having the linked website tick increases the trust factor of your website and establishing trust has always been a big issue for your website to overcome on your behalf.

My web design clientele & portfolio

See my portfolio of websites designed and/or optimised by me.
You may contact them for any reviews or references.

See also my cheap web design prices which are very competitive.

My typical web design clients are people who need a website that is optimised for search, professionally designed and needs it fairly quickly.

I design websites for the business sector in areas such as manufacturing, professional, service related, retail or tourism related but I have also made webpages for schools, clubs, individuals and other non-business customers.

About Hardweb the web design business

I have been a self employed full time web designer since 1999 and currently work from a home office located at:

25 Savoy Drive Broadbeach Waters
Gold Coast, Qld,4218 Australia.

Previously I web designed from premises in Surfers Paradise (4 yrs) then Broadbeach (1yr).

See more about David Thatcher and Hard Web.

Please call me now on (07) 5526-2939 or on mobile phone 0401-352-269

to find out how I can grow your business by generating new leads from good search engine rankings for your website!

Google Ads Management

I was first certified to become a Google Partner in Dec 2010 in Google's main search advertising product: Google Ads (formerly known as AdWords). I was individually qualified in one of the five "specialist areas" of Google Ads namely Search advertising. My Google Partner status lapsed in Dec 2019.
The other areas of specialisation are Mobile advertising, Video advertising, Display advertising and Shopping advertising.

This means that I am able to professionally manage your Google Ads search campaigns and be able to maximise the campaign's effectiveness.
My aims as your Google Ads manager are many but the basic aims are to try to make your Google Ads dollar spend go further by targeting the campaign more accurately to prospective customers of your business and avoiding clicks by non-prospects.
I will also try to reduce the CPC (cost per click) which on a fixed daily budget, means that you will have more prospects clicking on your Ad for the same spend.

Typically other parts of the job of Google Ads management might entail:

  • Setting up automated reports that verify the effectiveness (or not) of the Google Ads campaign
  • Making sure the keyword lists are right for you and that the keyword "match type" is the best for your needs
  • Making sure the Ad text is compelling and contains keywords
  • Making sure the landing page and also the text of your Ad contain the keywords we are bidding on so the Quality Score (QS) is raised which in turn will make your Ad show higher on the SERP and also lower the CPC (Cost per Click).
  • If necessary, to split the Google Ads Campaign into multiple campaigns and/or Ad Groups which helps analysis of the effectiveness
  • Setting up a "conversion" or "goal" activity that denotes a desired visitor behaviour such as buying or enquiring
  • Making sure the the geographic targeting is right for you - this is more difficult than you think because most of us living on the Gold Coast are treated as living in Brisbane by the geographic auto detecting ability of Google Ads which may be the fault of Telstra rather than Google - I am not sure.

For more about Google Ads (formerly known as AdWords) Management for Gold Coast business.

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Bloggy bits

I am a member of the Google Engage for Agencies program (Australia), note it is now called Google Partners.
I get to regularly listent to top speakers such as Mr. David Booth of Cardinal Path which is a large online marketing business in the U.S.A.
He has been a keynote speaker of the Google Engage (Australia) Master Classes which began in November 2011 and then came back three times to Brisbane in 2012 on 25th February, 11th July and 7th Nov.
The Google Engage seminars are really top knotch and I have learnt a lot from David Booth and the other speakers such as Stasia Holdren most of whom are not Google employees.
I always learn a lot from them and there is always 100% new material being presented which shows the huge growth and I must admit the complexity of the tools and products that Google continues to offer.

What is Google Search Console (formerly webmaster tools)?

On these 23 pages (link above to introduction and below) I explain the 23 categories of tools within Google Search Console (formerly webmaster tools). What they do and what use they are. Also screenshots and information about each category and tool within the Google Search Console (formerly webmaster tools) suite.

Self hosted video
See some of my self-hosted streaming videos that are easy and cheap to embed on your website and are less fuss than Youtube.

Here are some free web design tools I have been using lately.

Here is a javascript program that shows what the character codes (or unicode character entities) in the &#nnn format from &#1; to &#999; render in your webpage.



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To enquire about Google Ad campaigns for your business or Web Design or SEO
Please call Office: (07) 5526 2939
or Mobile: 0401 352 269

or email
Thank you.
Hardweb News


New Fast Local Website Host - Uptime Web Hosting Brisbane

Are you getting married on the Gold Coast?
Perhaps you need a local celebrant to conduct a commmitment ceremony or baby naming ceremony for you.
If this sounds like you I can heartily recommend Sue Raward who is also known as Celebrant Sue.
See her website about her being the best celebrant on the Gold Coast! Yeehah!
I declare that my opinion is only slightly biased because she is my wife, I have seen her in action and she is very good at her job.
Her most appealing celebrant qualities are probably her sense of humour coupled with her ease at public speaking. She is also very efficient and knows the technical side of the marriage game better than most. She will definitely get you and your partner married, and everyone will have some fun at the same time.

Google News



There are now four Google Ads ads at the top of many Google search results pages.
Ads on Google pages now take up a LOT of screen real estate and far too much in my opinion.

What can we do? Nothing.
Except move on with our lives.

Now there are often 3 Google Ads at the bottom and there seems to be less ads in the right hand column but I am not positive about that.
Note that for once Google followed Bing's lead. Bing has had 4 Ads at the top for over a year now (maybe much longer I can't recall).

Glenn Gabe thinks that Panda is now in "continuous rollout" mode which means a more difficult analysis to see if it was a Google Panda update that contributed to a drop in a website's Google rankings.

Mobilegeddon has come and gone but Google's Phantom 2 update about a week later more significant and unlike Mobilegeddon it was a surprise.
See Golden Beach Appliance repair if you need Fridge Repair on the Gold Coast.
I recommend Samir 'Steve' Sabbagh for all whitegoods repair.

Established in 1999 2019 will be Hard Web's 20th year of trading!
Hard Web is now in it's 19th year (at least) of trading on the Gold Coast!
The Web is now being served in many different hardware devices including tablet, mobile phone and ultrabook
Websites are now being served to many different devices including tablets, phablets, mobile phones and big screen TVs.
Contact Hard Web to find out how you can optimise your website to suit the fast changing ways your customers are viewing your website.
Top 3 useful Google list pages which list a lot of other related Google services
(All Google links below open in new tabs or windows)
Google Help lists Google help pages for all Google products
Google History lists many of your interactions with Google. You can listen to all of the voice searches you have ever made!? Spooky.

Top 15 free Google business products

Calendar (and tasks or reminders)
Chrome (browser)
Gmail (webmail)
Google Keep (notes)
Google Search (Aussie ver.)
Google Analytics (website stats)
Google My Business (free business listing)
Google Search Console (formerly webmaster tools - essential for SEO)
Google Drive (cloud base - includes the following 5 tools found within Drive
Google Docs (cloud word processing)
Google Sheets (cloud spreadsheet I love it!)
Also see Google Slides, Forms and Drawings (Drawings is within Docs).

Plus a few more useful Google Tools
Google Ads Ad preview tool (now standalone with no login to Google Ads required)
Google Ads Keyword Planner tool (no longer standalone - must setup an Google Ads account)
Google Map showing Hard Web
Qualifications:
  • Google Analytics Qualified
  • B.Comm (U.Q)

Tools and Experience
  • Established and ongoing since 1999
  • Web design using Dreamweaver
  • Web graphics using Photoshop
  • Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
  • Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
  • Google Ads Management
  • Google Places (Maps) Optimisation
  • Google My Business pages
  • Google Ads Ads for mobiles
  • Google Search Console (formerly webmaster tools)
  • Content Management Systems (CMS)
    using WordPress
  • Have a wife and 2 cats
  • Continuously building websites
    for mainly Gold Coast small business since 1999

Affiliations
  • Member Google Engage for Agencies Program
Below is another Google page which shows my exam results in more depth, it includes that I have regained the Google Analytics Individual Qualification for the 4th time on the 9th Nov 2013.
It has an expiry time of 18 months.

SOCIAL - Google+
This is a way of giving Hard Web a vote of confidence, the Google+ for business badge.
Click to check out Hard Web's Google+ page. Plus this page on Google+
When you are there you can 'follow' Hard Web but you have to have a Google+ profile.

Responsive Web Design
This webpage is now a responsive web design.
Here is a brief page I have written about What is responsive web design?

Also here are the viewport dimensions for the Google Nexus 7 tablet which is part of my ongoing experiments into responsive design.
Web designers might find the breakpoints for a nexus 7 tablet useful (if they are correct).
There are already a lot of screen size issues to consider for responsive web design but now there are two more responsive design breakpoints in my opinion.
Acronyms
SM
- Search Marketing
SEM
- Search Engine Marketing
SEO
- Search Engine Optimization
SMM
- Social Media Marketing
SEMM
- Search Engine Marketing Management

SEMM is trying to combine the other acronyms SM, SEM, SEO and SMM into a scientific or at least an academic discipline.

So instead of the focus of traditional SM being traffic building (increasing website visitors) and 'conversion' of visitors into customers.

SEMM focuses on the ROI metric (return on investment), website user testing and other elements of search marketing that can be tested and improved within a scientific framework.
I am sure the academic community soon make SEMM unintelligible for non academics and the new discipline of SEMM will have little relevance to people doing SM in practice day in day out.

BUT I sure you will be able to get an MBA majoring in SEMM before very long!



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Call 07 5526 2939 or 0401 352 269