Why can’t I see my new web page ?
One of the most common questions I get asked quite regularly after carrying out modifications or additions to a clients website is “Why can’t I see my new webpage ?” I thought it would be useful to explain why this is and how to resolve it.
The “Techy” bit
When you visit a website for the first time, your browser (e.g. Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome etc.) communicates with the server (where the website is hosted) which then sends a copy of the page and all its contents to your browser which it then displays for you to read.
Web pages contain a lot of content (e.g. words, images etc), made up of lots of separate files so each of these needs to be downloaded to your browser individually before it can display the page. This is why sometimes you notice it takes a while to display everything, particularly if you have large images.
This process takes time and bandwidth so it costs time and money to do this every time you re-load a page. Some of this content quite often does not change very often, or is the same on multiple pages (e.g. a logo displayed in the header) so the browser stores a copy of all the files locally in what is called its “cache”.
The next time a page is loaded, the browser first checks in its cache to see if it already has a copy of each file and then uses this rather than downloading it again from the server. This is obviously faster and also reduces the amount of bandwidth required as it only needs now to download the files that it does not have.
When you update or change the content on a website and upload the new version to the server, if the file name is the same, the browser would not know that it has changed so it still quite reasonably uses the local version it has stored in its cache so you still see the previous version.
The fix
Simple, all you need to do is to tell the browser to get the latest version of the files from the server by clicking on the refresh button at the top of your browser. The refresh button usually looks like a circular arrow on most browsers. Some examples are included below:
Firefox, Chrome
Internet Explorer
So now you know.
New Scalar Enterprises web services overview video
I have just produced a new video of our latest Scalar Enterprises web services overview presentation tobring up to date the range of services that we now offer to help small businesses in the Portsmouth and Southampton areas to get up and running on the web or to improve how their current web sites are performing.
I have also created a new “ScalarEnt Channel” on YouTube to pull together some of our more recent videos that we have done for ourselves and clients. Feel free to have a look and let us know what you think by leaving a comment on our YouTube or Facebook pages.
“Ask Gary Gas Man”
Those nice people at Aura Gas asked us to add another feature to their Aura Gas website recently so we have just finished it off and it has gone live today.
They now have a Question and Answer page where their customers can send their questions to Gary at Aura Gas and they can also search the existing results for answers to their questions.
We have also added a Twitter feed for them so visitors to the site can follow their Tweets without having to go off the page.
Got a question about your gas central heating or boiler ? Why not give it a try and Ask Gary Gas Man now !
ib technology on-line store now up and running
We have recently been working on a new online store for one of our clients, ib technology, for their RFID products.
The ib technology online store compliments their web site and services their UK client base.
You can now buy their RFID products at www.buyrfid.co.uk/store/
Corporate transactions made easy
Another new website went live to day for local business 3Y strategies, based in Gosport, Hampshire.
Business partner, 3Y Strategies (3Ys), will help advise and guide you through the emotional and challenging process involved in a corporate transaction to ensure a smooth transition into the next stage.
More information on their website at www.3ys.co.uk
A makeover for TLM Property Maintenance
TLM Property Maintenance are used to doing makovers on their customers properties but we have just done one for them on their website.
They decided it was time to freshen up their image and re-brand with a great new look and so we have just updated their website to match.
Nice new look and a great new offer to go with with it – get a free staircase included if you sign up for a loft conversion before the 1st March 2011.
What are you awaiting for ? Go and take a look at the TLM web site.
A facelift for Charnock Environmental
We have been busy working with local environmental consultants Charnock Environmental to give their website a bit of a facelift over the last few weeks.
Charnock environmental have a wealth of knowledge and expertise to offer local businesses to help them meet their environmental commitments and also to help them save money.
See the new look at http://www.charnock-environmental.co.uk
The importance of Social Media in B2B marketing
I did a presentation about Scalar Enterprises to my BNI Portsmouth Nelson Chapter this morning and I always try to include some information about the current state of the market and trends, statistics etc in these presentations so this time I made mention of the importance of Social Media in business-to-business (B2B) marketing.
I found a really great video entitled “Social Media Revolution 2 (Refresh)”, based on the book Socialnomics by Erik Qualman, which gives a very quick, but powerful, overview of Social Media. Several people asked me where they could find it to watch again so I thought I would include it here.
For those of you on LinkedIn, you might like to join this group that I started a while ago and join in the discussions with other local business people. (You probably will have to join the group before you can see the articles etc).
Social Media in B2B Marketing in Hampshire
http://www.linkedin.com/groups?mostPopular=&gid=3446679
For those of you who aren’t yet on LinkedIn, you should be (and it is free). See https://www.linkedin.com/reg/join?trk=learnjoin
You can also now enter your business separately on LinkedIn so this another item for your to-do list. See http://www.linkedin.com/companies
Social Media is all about getting involved and joining in so join up, join in, and start contributing - ask questions and answer others.
RULE #1 – don’t use Social Media to blatantly advertise your business – you are there to engage and join in conversations, help others, ask questions, give advice etc.
This might also be useful – LinkedIn New User Starter Guide: http://learn.linkedin.com/new-users/
New Blog and CMS for TLM Property Maintenance
Just completed an interesting addition to the TLM Property Maintenance web site. They asked me to add a blog so that they could add articles and tips etc from time to time but this also meant that they needed some form of content management system (CMS).
This was a great opportunity for us to try out a great tool we have discovered recently which, in actual fact, is a content editing system (CES) rather than a CMS.
It is a fairly basic editor but is more than adequate for the job, really simple to use, easy to implement and most importantly can be easy retro-fitted to virtually any web site and also allows us to keep the costs quite low compared to other CMS systems. Also, unlike most other CMS systems, we can incorporate it without having to add an additional database which often means higher costs if your hosting package does not include this already.
This system allows us to add our CES to a web site in just the areas the client wants to edit (e.g. just the blog page) or more extensively across the site if required.
If this sounds interesting and it is something you would like to add to your current web site, give us a call and we can tell you more about it.
New WEBimprove pay-as-you-go web site service launched by Scalar Enterprises
In the current difficult financial climate and with everyone having to make cuts in expenditure everywhere they can, many are struggling to make ends meet and cash flow becomes even more important.
In response to this, we thought we would add a pay-as-you go web site solution to our range of services for our clients who prefer to spread the costs for their web site by paying monthly and with no up-front costs.
We have been working hard in the background for quite a while developing our WEBimprove pay-as-you-go web site service and we are now ready to launch it.
Our monthly pay-as-you-go WEBimprove service offers 3 packages, Starter, Improver and Premier which covers most basic needs for a web site. It is suitable for a range of businesses, whether you are just starting out and need to establish your first web site or if you are ready to upgrade your current site to the next level and make it work better for you as your business grows.
You can also add extra options to these base packages if you wish and we also of course have our other range of services to offer still as well so whatever you need, we can help you with a solution.
Interested ? Find out more on our WEBimprove web site or call us FREEPHONE on 0800 5999 702.
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