Forest Software

Web, SEO and IT & Business Advice for the Smaller Business

Monthly Archives: April 2011

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Last updated on April 13th, 2015 at 02:27 pm

As a small business here in the UK you may wonder why you would need Public Liability insurance (a form of business insurance that is recommended here in the UK if you run a business where members of the public come to your premises or you go to their premises).

Let me give you an example that shows why you should seriously think about taking out public liability insurance and the costs that might be involved if you decide to “save money” by not taking  it out.

My mother is having some windows replaced in her home, she is using a local firm that was recommended to her by neighbours and friends at the church that she attends.  Last Thursday the workman arrived as normal and put down a plastic dust sheet to protect the floor while he did some work on the porch.  Shortly afterwards the postman knocked with a letter that mum needed to sign for.  Mum opened the door and slipped on the plastic dustsheet that it seems had not been stuck to the floor.  Continue reading

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Last updated on April 13th, 2015 at 02:28 pm

1st impressions count : © Alexander Zhiltsov | Dreamstime.comAs a small business owner what is the first impression that you give prospective clients?  Is it that you are capable of “delivering the goods”, be that a service or an actual product, is it that you can be trusted or is it something completely different?

There is an old saying that first impressions count, this is more true than many people realise as is illustrated by a blog post that I was reading earlier today.  This post was written by someone that is in the process of starting up in business as a consultant and is one in a series of their progress along this path.  Back in October last year they posted about finding an accountant and a bank. Continue reading

Reading Time: 3 minutes

Last updated on April 13th, 2015 at 02:29 pm

Recently I have talked to several small (and not so small) businesses that have completely redesigned their websites and have suffered a drop in the number of visitors to their sites.

They are understandably concerned by this turn of events, even making the comment “I thought that Google liked new content”.

There are several reasons why the number of visitors to a redesigned site may have dropped including :-

  • The page content has changed so that the search engine ranking has fallen for the page
  • The internal navigation has changed so that the engines can’t find their way around the site so easily
  • The urls  have changed for the pages and you have not set up re-directions to the new pages (maybe you have just changed the page name, maybe you have moved several pages into a new folder to keep them together or maybe you have gone from a static set of pages to a database driven site that means that the page names have had to change.

Continue reading

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Over the years we have published many articles based around the questions that we get asked from small businesses relating to marketing, SEO, general business advice and other subjects.  You can find a list of related articles grouped by subject below or can even search for a word or phrase or browse our recent articles.

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