We are pleased to announce that one of our client sites has been put live this morning. Gallaghers Removals are a home removals company based in Newcastle, they cover the whole of the North East and will move you from … Continue reading
We are pleased to announce that one of our client sites has been put live this morning. Gallaghers Removals are a home removals company based in Newcastle, they cover the whole of the North East and will move you from … Continue reading
Hey guys and girls, We are back with another trend to look out for in 2013, (we are aware that towards the back end of 2012 this was beginning to take off and you may have already seen it but … Continue reading
With the turn of the year being a mere 10 days ago we are already starting to think about the way the web will look in 2013. There are many trends to think about and look forward to in 2013, … Continue reading
If you haven’t heard of LESS then please read on, it is a fantastic way of organising your CSS style sheets and also making them 100% dynamic. We all know what it’s like when writing CSS + HTML, you use … Continue reading
With the creative design industry evolving everyday it can sometimes be hard to stay current and up to date with ‘New Trends’ and better ways of doing things, this is why we are going to bring you – over the … Continue reading
Since the rise of the World Wide Web in the 1990′s the world has become dependent on search engines like Google. Just think about how many times you have Googled something you didn’t know and then multiply that by all … Continue reading
Another new client added to our SEO books and it’s only Monday! Check out the site, we will be starting our plans this week! Hilights Entertainment Hilights Entertainment is an entertainment company based, again in the North East of England, … Continue reading
We are proud to announce a new client to our SEO books, keep a look out for the site, we have big plans for it! James Henry Hypnotist James Henry is a comedy stage hypnotist based in the North East … Continue reading
We are proud to announce another SEO client on our books – NE Flooring – North East Flooring LTD. – Based in the North East and being in the trade for over 20 years they have the skills and quality … Continue reading
Prem-lets is one of the leading estate agents in North East, they deal with everything when it comes to the property market. When they first started out they were aiming at professional lettings, going for the more corporate look and … Continue reading
Over the last few years, I have been exposed to some fantastic websites that will help when considering colour palettes within design. There are a few that we at blue-shark.co.uk would recommend you use as reference material for your designs. … Continue reading
One of the main things you want, but don’t really worry about, is being high up in Google for terms related to your business. This is not an easy task, we put countless hours and effort into making sure our … Continue reading
Over the last few months I have been reading a lot of blog posts and articles on responsive web design, this is basically when you design a website for desktop, at its maximum visibility level, then you use something called … Continue reading
[Note: Sorry, this position has been filled!] Blueshark design are looking for a PHP developer to add to their existing team. The role will consist of working on a variety of projects on both new and existing websites with a … Continue reading
Letslivehere Letting Agency are a long term client of ours who we’ve been dealing with for many years, doing both their design work and more recently taking over their SEO. Letslivehere are one of Newcastle’s leading letting agents, with a … Continue reading
Self Store Newcastle are one of our newest clients in terms of SEO. Just a week old. To put it simply they are a storage company based in Newcastle, hence the title. We firstly added several key terms into the … Continue reading
North East Recovery are the top car recovery service Newcastle has to offer and evidently from the list below in terms of SEO they are top for that as well. Below is a list of key terms we here at … Continue reading
Henry Ashdown are a company based in the peak district. The handmade garden furniture is created by British craftsmen and is sold all over Britain. So gaining a client like this for Blueshark’s SEO client base is Perfect. We started … Continue reading
We buy your wheels are based in Gateshead just over the Tyne Bride. They buy any motorised vehicle from a car to a tractor and are a very well established North East based business. On their website you simply enter … Continue reading
We often get clients who ask for a site ‘not to scroll’. This is why we or any other web designer would not recommend doing this. 1. Users expect to scroll Yes, back in the olden days (the 90′s) people … Continue reading
Business accounts for Google+ have recently been released allowing companies to take full advantage in the build up to the Christmas holiday period. The advantages of using Google+ business pages is the hangouts, allowing companies to connect directly to small … Continue reading
QR codes are becoming increasingly popular, you may have seen them on TV adverts or in newspapers and magazines. QR codes are a type of barcode that can be read by smartphones. The code consists of black modules arranged in … Continue reading
You may have noticed the Google + symbol appearing more and more while browsing the web. Google+ is a social networking service operated by Google themselves. This service is currently invite only while Google are testing but in the near … Continue reading
Google Analytics is a powerful tool that provides tracking for anyone with a web presence. Google Analytics works by adding a tracking code into the footer of your site, this tracking code includes a snippet of JavaScript. This code collects … Continue reading
Over the past few weeks you may have noticed that Google looks slightly different. The look and feel of the leading search engine has changed. Google decided to make such drastic changes to stay ahead of competitors, they have used … Continue reading
July was another busy month for the Blueshark Design team. The web team completed some very interesting bespoke projects for Autoclock Systems and RAL Signs, while the graphic designers worked very hard finishing brochures and leaflets for Henry Ashdown.
Websites are now using creative bespoke navigations rather than the standard horizontal tabs below the header. The navigation on a web design is very important. A easy flowing navigation, is likely to make a user return to your site increasing … Continue reading
We will be using Facebook to connect with people around us and showing screen shots of archived work. Please feel free to post, share links and photos that will interest us! We are interested to hear your opinions on out … Continue reading
May was a very busy month for everybody at Blueshark Design, we have designed and built some excellent bespoke websites for a variety of different clients. We have completed websites for We Buy Your Wheels, Henry Ashdown and The TeaShed. … Continue reading
It is very important that the content for your website is the best it can be. Writing solid content for your website is different from writing any other text, getting this right will make people return to the website on … Continue reading
Typically an email design project will be associated with an existing brand, there is always a website design in place that you can work from. You want to make your email design feel like it is being sent from the … Continue reading
It is important to follow search engine guidelines to assure natural high ranking of your website over a long-term campaign. All businesses want to reach the top of the ranking list on search engines for obvious reasons. SEO (search engine … Continue reading
So, you have read the first post ‘Basic SEO tips to consider’? Considered and applied all 5 tips? Well you are at the right place. Here are another 5 SEO tips to improve your search rankings further. 1. Have you … Continue reading
Designing a great website is only the beginning of becoming successful online. Your site must be search engine friendly to ensure people see it. There are basic SEO principles to take into consideration as well as good content development practices. … Continue reading
Having discovering the benefits of email design in our earlier post your probably asking the question: How do you create a well-designed HTML email? The starting point of creating a successful email design is crafting an appealing subject line. Although … Continue reading
There are many common questions that our clients ask when we design email campaigns. The following is a collection of some best practices for email design. How long should an email be? Think about how many emails you get everyday … Continue reading
Sending an email campaign is not as simple as sending a message asking your clients very nicely to buy some more stuff from your store. There are many different types of email marketing to consider. The first and most regular … Continue reading
Our first in the series about email design covers the absolute basic question: why should you consider email design and what are the major benefits over other types of advertising? First of all the main advantage is speed. What other … Continue reading
There are plenty of e-commerce stores that have the same feel and function across the web. That isn’t always a bad thing for conventions but every now and then you need to set yourself apart from the competition. We’ve pulled … Continue reading
Considering SEO for your site? Don’t forget local search engine optimisation listings are just as important as organic. I’m sure many of you are thinking “Organic!? Local!?” Well, to put it simply organic listings are the results off to the … Continue reading
Style is no different to the web than it is to the Fashion, Marketing and Television industries and that’s why every couple of years your company could benefit from a facelift or a website redesign. Web redesigns don’t always have … Continue reading
Last week saw the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas and a chance to identify the hot gadget for this year. The result? Internet Tablets With the iPad released last year to much fanfare, rival tablets are being designed and … Continue reading
The brand new Yoga Retreats website has gone live over the Christmas period and is a much bigger and brighter beast. The new site showcases all kinds of great Yoga Retreats and gives the user the option to narrow down … Continue reading
This month a new report from The Connected Kingdom highlighted the progress the UK has made online. What does it mean? Well for starters the Internet contributed approx £100 billion to the UK economy in 2009. This was found to … Continue reading
Our clients are always asking us; who are the biggest and best e-commerce stores in the whole of the UK? Well, here’s the top 10 and our comments. 1. Amazon UK – www.amazon.co.uk Seemingly always top of the pile, Amazon … Continue reading
As we all know, November is a stressful time of year; from Christmas shopping to finishing projects and meeting deadlines. So our first Spotify playlist is with speed in mind. Fast tempos, driving bass and bouncy songs to help us … Continue reading
Although we at blueshark design have always been massive fans of Helvetica for it’s timeless lean style, it seems to have come back into favour for many of the large corporations and some of their recent redesigns. The Swiss typeface … Continue reading
Google Analytics is an extremely powerful tool for studying and analysing your web statistics. Understanding the basics of its terminology can help you decipher what the stats mean for your business. What does Bounce Rate mean? Bounce Rate – This … Continue reading
Common queries we get involve ‘Why do those columns not lineup together like on our leaflet’? Well this is because web and print design are very, very different. With print design, what you see is what you get. You can … Continue reading
For those who aren’t aware, Internet Explorer 6 (IE6) has been part of a long running hate-hate relationship with most of the worlds web developers. Some developers and websites have even stopped supporting it completely. Future noteables include Google, Youtube … Continue reading
As you may well know or not know just yet, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is the art of putting your website in the best possible light for Google and the other search engines to rank you highly for certain key … Continue reading
Splash pages are intro pages that were very popular in the early days of the web. They would typically be flash introductions or some other type of introduction with an ‘enter site’ link. There are many reasons we would advise … Continue reading
If you haven’t heard already, two of the biggest websites of recent times are the social networking sites, Twitter and Facebook. Whilst great for keeping in touch with loved ones and new friends, they are also great business tools for … Continue reading
Although justified text is very common in traditional print and newspaper design, we avoid the use of it in web for many reasons. There are 2 big reasons for not using justified text on web pages: 1) the method we … Continue reading
An essential element to setting up your online shop is a trustworthy way of collecting payment. We personally recommend Paypal because they act as a badge of credibility and trust on your website. It’s difficult to underestimate the value of … Continue reading
You may have heard alot out the importance of page speed and fast loading times for your pages. Well Google has recognised that this is important for all web users and has included a new signal in their search ranking … Continue reading
We’d like to take the opportunity to thank you for taking the time to read the blueshark design blog. In addition to the launch of our new website, we’d thought it would be a great idea to use a blog … Continue reading