We were delighted to be involved with the Cairns HIA awards this year and it was encouraging to see a lot of our clients receive the recognition that they deserve while enjoying a great night out with varying levels of intoxication. How were the headaches the next day guys?

With the Townsville HIA awards kicking off next Friday, it'll be great to relive the experience with all of our highly competent Townsville building industry clients.

It's a shame they no longer hold the North Queensland media awards, where we could get some recognition for the work we do, but seeing our clients receive these achievements is more than enough.

First impressions count and we're very proud of the projects we have designed and developed over the last month.

Check out the new websites below for our very own HIA award winners. These businesses now have a website that will deliver that great first impression to potential clients, and considering the laughable quality of their previous websites, mostly done by those phone book guys, it's excellent news that we can look after them as the leading, local, website design and marketing firm in the region. As the HIA slogan resonates, they're now in good hands.

The Allcorp studio will be closed from December 12th, 2018 until January 2nd, 2019. (We only close once a year and it is always during this window - We need a break too!)

While most of our team will be enjoying a well-deserved break, hopefully somewhere less humid than our great state is at the moment, we will still have a support team available should urgent website modifications be required. Just call our office if you need assistance.

If you will require any assistance over this time, get in early prior to our closure to ensure your changes can be scheduled efficiently.

I was lucky enough to receive a last minute invitation to the Cairns HIA Awards Night thanks to our long standing client – Ray at www.stylelinecabinets.com.au who had 2 entries in the HIA Awards! In the end it was Russell from www.artizancabinets.com.au walking away with a few wins for Kitchen Awards – Congratulations again Russell and Paula!

Exciting to see some new Allcorp clients win some major house awards this year as well. Two years in a row winning ‘Renovation/ Addition Project’ was www.sherriffcontractors.com.au and the ‘Home of the Year’ win for a few years' running now, goes to www.brendangranthomes.com.au presented by Ashley Balderson of www.statusplus.com.au. It just goes to show the true talent of a lot of local businesses making waves in the housing industry, right here in Cairns! Some of these new designer homes, glorious kitchens and stunning renovation transformations truly blew me away. It was an exciting evening and great to be a part of the event. Next year, you’ll get to see more of Allcorp at the 2019 HIA Awards!

Whenever there is an industry award event for your industry it’s very important to maximise the exposure your business gets from events like these each year, which is why everyone has made the move to have brand new 4k UHD and mobile compatible websites established to enjoy the added traffic from award wins! Better yet is to see everyone maximising on their Google marketing campaigns as well by establishing them with Allcorp or boosting their already existing budgets to enjoy all those hot leads.

There are still a few businesses out there that are a bit unsure of Google Ads and the benefits this can bring to your business, especially if you’ve not tried Google yet. However, we are still seeing a lot of local businesses wasting their marketing budgets on the phone book products. Let me tell you that the online phone book listing does not have the same power as Google. Essentially Google own the world; whenever you’re looking for something online, well, we just Google it don’t we? No-one ever says “Oh, just Local Search it” or “Yellow Page it” – it just doesn’t have the same ring to it.

When appointing a business with the all important task of updating your web presence there are many to choose from. Every year we see a host of new website design businesses setup operation in North Queensland, mostly they are all one person operations and advertise that they are able to manage this task for you professionally.

Alternatively, there is the flip side of the 'one man band' operation with the new kids on the block at the phone book businesses and even the newspapers have jumped on the bandwagon. It seems like you'd be spoilt for choice when shopping for a website designer. But you really aren't.

What we have experienced over the last 18 years in this industry is that to get a website designed for any business involves many different skillsets, not just a website designer, but also a commercial photographer, commercial copywriter, a web developer for the tricky operations of the website, a website host company, an online marketing professional and finally an account manager to tie all of the processes together efficiently.

At Allcorp we are the only local website design company in North Queensland who has the people power to professionally take care of every aspect of your website design and marketing.

We are the only business who allocates each client a dedicated account manager plus we are the only website design business who can actually assist your business with advertising and marketing driven copywriting preparation, arrange commercial photo shoots, appoint a certified Google marketing specialist to assist with the marketing of your site, have an in house development and host team to keep everything running reliably and on top of all of this, we still ensure that there is someone in our studio to answer the phone when you call with a need for assistance.

When the 'one man band' provider is out consulting with their clients are they answering their phone to provide you with customer service? What if you need something done urgently or what if your emails are out for some reason?

Similar problem with the giant national cookie cutter providers such as the phone book guys and the newspaper fleet; what country and what call centre will you be directed to if you need support?

Having a professional web presence is vital for every business. And having a full service company like Allcorp develop it for you makes sense. No other website design operation in North Queensland offers the full suite of services as we do. By choosing Allcorp to work on your new project you are benefiting from the input of many individuals with years of experience in their fields.

Have a look at all of our new websites below, most of them feature the input of 2, 3 or 4 different people, all specialists in their field, to ensure the finished product is to the highest standard. And when you need support later, you can call our local team and not be diverted to a call centre overseas.

Hi Everyone,

Trialling something new, where you finally get to hear a bit from me!

As the majority of you know, I am the Account Director at Allcorp and coming up to my third year – time flies when you’re having fun. The majority of my role includes liaising with a plethora of business owners, marketing managers and chief financial officers, when it comes to improving the look of an online presence and spending a marketing budget in a much more sophisticated way.

We hear lots of stories and excuses in our office when it comes to saving a buck and procrastinating with an online presence, which, in this day and age, is the WORST thing a business owner can do. You should NEVER procrastinate about your image when it comes to digital marketing, because, as we all know, the digital world moves so quickly, for example, every 12 months we update our mobile phones!

The usual excuses: “My cousin is doing my website pro-rata” – “My daughter just finished a marketing degree at TAFE” – “I have no money, but meanwhile I just signed up for 12 (or 24) months with the phone book people”

The outcome: Nothing ever gets done when you rely on your ‘mates’ for “mates rates”!

At Allcorp, we see the whole project through from start to finish and we still keep in contact with you once the project is complete. We are the local team. Once you sign on the dotted line after expressing what you want for your next website design this is when our Commercial Photographer and myself come into your office and coordinate appropriate, professional photos for your website. You’ll always hear me harp on about being clean and tidy in your uniforms (ironed), shaved faces for the guys, which allows us to showcase you within your business place in the most professional manner. By doing this, you impart trust and peace of mind to existing and potential customers upon viewing your website and accomplishing their very important buying decisions.

You have to think, if, for example, you’re looking for a Kitchen Designer, Air Conditioning Repairer, Plumber or Financial Advisor, would you make the buying decision if you jumped on a website that looked dodgy and with no SSL security certificate?Unfortunately there are many out there so don’t be fooled.

On the other hand when you view a website of this class: www.jrautomotive.com.au -There you have it!A great web design, professional photos, uniquely written copywriting and backed up with a successful SEM Campaign, all thanks to Allcorp.

Today in 2018 as we get into the busy season (silly season starting December) – it’s important you don’t procrastinate, that you scrap the phone book products (WHY ARE YOU STILL INVESTING IN THIS!) save your money, invest it wisely in a professional website and Google marketing campaign to where your audience is!

When appointing a business with the all important task of updating your web presence there are many to choose from. Every year we see a host of new website design businesses setup operation in North Queensland, mostly they are all one person operations and advertise that they are able to manage this task for you professionally.

Alternatively, there is the flip side of the 'one man band' operation with the new kids on the block at the phone book businesses and even the newspapers have jumped on the bandwagon. It seems like you'd be spoilt for choice when shopping for a website designer. But you really aren't.

What we have experienced over the last 18 years in this industry is that to get a website designed for any business involves many different skillsets, not just a website designer, but also a commercial photographer, commercial copywriter, a web developer for the tricky operations of the website, a website host company, an online marketing professional and finally an account manager to tie all of the processes together efficiently.

When appointing a business with the all important task of updating your web presence there are many to choose from. Every year we see a host of new website design businesses setup operation in North Queensland, mostly they are all one person operations and advertise that they are able to manage this task for you professionally.

Alternatively, there is the flip side of the 'one man band' operation with the new kids on the block at the phone book businesses and even the newspapers have jumped on the bandwagon. It seems like you'd be spoilt for choice when shopping for a website designer. But you really aren't.

What we have experienced over the last 18 years in this industry is that to get a website designed for any business involves many different skillsets, not just a website designer, but also a commercial photographer, commercial copywriter, a web developer for the tricky operations of the website, a website host company, an online marketing professional and finally an account manager to tie all of the processes together efficiently.

We all know that the print industry is being relegated to the scrap heap, but some may not know how rapidly this is happening. In the print run of The Cairns Post or The Townsville Bulletin, you only have to go back as far as 2 or 3 years to see how dramatically this has been reducing and the pattern that is forming.

For example, in June 2017 the print run of our local fish and chip wrapper in Cairns was 70,000 and in June 2018 it was down to 56,000. Having a browse through other publications shows a similar downward spiral.

Effectively, we are at a point in time where the old media outlets are scurrying to find an alternate product to keep their advertising revenue coming in, which is why in the last few months, all of them have suddenly jumped on the Google bandwagon, and some even sell dreary websites.

What we've always promoted as the solution for business marketing, namely a good website presence coupled with Google advertising, has now become the refuge of the old media giants. The good news for all of the Allcorp clients is that we are more experienced with this type of marketing.

The results being achieved back this up as well.

One such example is a small business client who owns a tow truck company. 12 months ago they were spending a yearly budget of $7,000 with Sensis/Yellow and $6,000 with Local Search. We advised them that by cancelling this spend each year, investing $3,000 in a new website design by us with an additional $3,000 per year just on Google Ads, they would have all of the marketing oomph required to stay busy.

So the business saves thousands of dollars each year, isn't locked into long term contracts and is dealing with the most experienced online advertising businesses in the region.

Having a free consultation with one of our web experts will show your business real case studies of how this really is effective. Contact our office today to see how we can help you achieve better results from your advertising spend and leave the old print publications to continue their disappearing act.

At Allcorp, we've been a Google Partner since 2014. As the first local Google Partner business in the region, we have been able to assist a lot of the early adopter businesses get themselves found on Google with our certified AdWords campaign management. In fact, we look after more Google AdWords campaigns than any other local business.

In the time we have been providing Google services we have seen a lot of other businesses who are in advertising and marketing begin the introduction of Google AdWords to their portfolio of services as well. This is expected and a good thing, because the results a business can achieve through Google AdWords is amazing. The results we have seen really do speak for themselves.

Reactive media organisations who have jumped on the Google bandwagon in the recent months include Yellow Pages, Local Directories, News Corp (Cairns Post, Townsville Bulletin), even Channel 10 tried to get in on the party just before they went belly-up.

With every old media outlet now grasping at the proverbial straws of their old and increasingly redundant media sources, it's no surprise that they are desperately looking for a new product to sell to their clientele.

When you are choosing a business to manage your Google AdWords account it is important that you choose a local provider. Most of these old media giants will have a local presence with their sales team. But that's all they have locally. Plus the local salesperson you deal with doesn't manage or run or really have any knowledge of how to setup and manage the Google AdWords services for your business. They instead send the relevant paperwork off to their production office. This is usually in The Philippines or India. The question is, what does a clerk in an office in India know about the location wherein you do business? How good are they at eliminating searches from geographic regions they know nothing about?

We saw one report from an old media agency who had set the target area for their managed campaign of a Townsville client to the Brisbane region. Because Brisbane is just down the road from Townsville, right? This same old media agency prepared another report for a Cairns client, and were very proud thatthey had excluded the city of Gordonvale from their searches. Because Gordonvale is clearly a long way away.

We have seen such failures and advertising wastage from many reports we have seen from most of the big old media agencies. And the problem is all down to geography and knowledge of the area.

At Allcorp, as the original Google Partner in the area, we employ local people to manage these campaigns. When we take over the accounts of these old media businesses and start looking into how they set things up, we can immediately begin producing much higher quality clicks to the website from much more qualified potential customers.

If you want to start getting the most out of AdWords, and only paying for clicks that come from highly qualified sources, have a chat with one of our Google Marketing experts today. Being an online marketing agency, Allcorp provide services that help local businesses and we've been doing it much longer than the others. The others who only picked up the Google AdWords product after their other products became irrelevant.

Have a free chat with Peter, Lisa or Tiffany today. Get some local people working on your Google AdWords marketing and stop the clicks coming from geographic regions that have no ability to do business with you.

This last month we have had a few clients who have taken up a social media marketing program using a third party provider. Mostly, this has been utilising the services of News Corps NewsXtend services.

It seems News Corp (Townsville Bulletin, Cairns Post etc.) have begun value-adding online marketing services to their print media services to keep the advertising revenue coming in. (Much the same thing that Sensis started doing to try and keep their phone book alive by adding website design and Google marketing to their packages.)

From what we understand, News Corp sales reps are essentially selling Google Marketing and Social Media Marketing alongside their print campaigns in those folded up pieces of paper that people used to read a long time ago. Which is great. Not only is online advertising the future, but it is also the present.

The only problem we have seen arise with this is in the fact that News Corp don't make websites. So if you undergo an online marketing program with them they will ask you to get your website designer to make some needed additions and modifications to your website because they can't do it on their clients behalf. So News Corp will sell you a campaign that is reliant on Allcorp making changes to your website.

If you are approached by this company or any other similar business it is adviseable to get a quote from us to make the necessary changes to your website before signing on the dotted line so you have a clear picture of how much this is going to cost. The price that News Corp will quote you does not include costs that Allcorp would normally charge for making changes to your website so their campaign can run.

In our experience with dealing with a few of these cases over the last month we have also noticed that News Corp don't communicate their deadlines and a lot of the changes have been demanded at the last minute to keep in accordance with the News Corp schedules.

Don't forget, Allcorp can help you with social media marketing and Google marketing as your official Google Partner. The only difference is that we won't make you pay a third party to get the job done.

Contact Tiffany or Lisa today if you need assistance setting up a Facebook account or Google Analytics in conjunction with your new generation responsive website.

As previously mentioned, on Friday May 25th we commenced the migration of all of the data and settings from our existing server to our new dual stage infrastructure. Over the weekend we were able to identify some errors and minor faults which were promptly resolved by our 24/7 server technicians located in our Sydney data centre.

Since this last Friday all Allcorp clients have been using the new network and we have seen very little impact to clients as a result. The best news is that by performing this upgrade we have more than doubled the size of our server network and also introduced a purpose built redundancy that means we run our new server setup across 2 identical servers. One of these servers is active and one is passive. The passive server merely takes a backup of the whole active server periodically through each day.

With this application we can efficiently switch the passive server to an active state within minutes of an unlikely error forming on the active server. This means full services can be restored almost instantly while technicians can investigate the cause of the problem on the once active server without anything requiring going into an offline state.

This has been a substantial investment into ensuring we provide the best server network for our clients for the years to come. It is a service which we have implemented without any plans of increasing the cost of hosting or any other services, just as we haven't done for more than 15 years.

In the midst of this major upgrade and development we still managed to keep the projects flowing with 7 brand new websites brought online in the month of May as follows.

We'd like to welcome Lisa Mikaels to our team who joins with Tiffany Marcantelli, our already well established Account Director, as our newest addition to the Allcorp company.

Many of you may have already met with Lisa as she has been here for over a month already, gradually making contact with the clients in her area as we continue our efforts to get the information out there about our industry, the changes taking place and the possible misinformation being spruced through the area from some overseas businesses.

Lisa has a very strong past work experience within the advertising and marketing business development sectors and we are certain she will be a valuable asset to Allcorp and our client base.

Being highly skilled in business to business consulting, and also having the knowledge of all of the products we offer and service in our niche industry, means Lisa is able to join the team with Tiffany and present the correct information to clients to ensure they are making the most out of their online marketing strategies.

Lisa has worked within various facets of media in the past with successful roles in old media such as television, newspaper, radio and the phone books which has led to her now being in the online advertising industry as it takes over from those old media outlets.

We're looking forward to having Lisa in our team and are positive that our clients will also have a great level of customer service and attention to detail that Lisa provides as our newest team member.

Our new server is now in the final stages of coming online with a new plan to ensure we deliver the best hosting solution for our clients across Queensland. This new server is an equal match for the current server we purchased back in August last year but will be housed in a separate data centre in Sydney.

The best news is that this second server is being setup as a passive server, meaning it doesn't do anything except synchronise with all of the data and settings of the first server.

If server number one stops responding, needs to be rebooted or has a technical difficulty, the second, passive server, immediately comes online with a seamless transition and, as far as the internet around the world is concerned, there has been no change to where your website and email are located.

Once the first server is back online it resumes duties as per normal.

We will be rolling out the changes required to bring SY4 online over the coming week. There will be no changes required on the client end and no downtime during the process because we don't need to take the first primary server offline to setup the dual stage system.

It is a very exciting investment into the online infrastructure in Queensland and with our continued relationship with the server company and their 24/7 Australian support we expect this investment to pave the way for a better online solution for our region which can easily become cut off from the rest of the country in disaster events.

If you have any more questions about our new server upgrades feel free to contact us and we'll be more than happy to talk all about it, we're all eagerly anticipating filling these servers to their capacity and adding more dedicated servers to our arsenal as the need arises.

Most of our clients will have been approached by their phone book reps as of late and, as humorous as it is that these guys are still trying to flog a dead horse, they keep trying to value add their other services into a package. One of their add-ons comes by the way of their directory apps. (These are the ads you may keep seeing on the side of our buses. Usually with the headline 'Search local' or something similar.)

The apps are being sold as an alternative to what we are all using to find business, Google. The phone booksales people will no doubt have some specifications as to how many people use these apps on a regular basis but did you know that you can easily find out how popular the apps are online?

By visiting the Google Play Store or Apple iTunes App Store you can look up any available app, see ratings and reviews on it as well as seeing the important bit of information which is how many times the app has been downloaded or installed.

The below image shows today's data for the Local Directories App. As you can see in this image the reviews are mostly 1 star and often peppered with words such as 'useless' and 'waste of time.' The interesting part is the number of installs the app has had. In this case it is 10,000 - 50,000.

Now 10,000 - 50,000 people may seem like a lot of installs. But when you consider that this is across all 24 million people in Australia the worthiness of advertising in such a product tends to wane. (Around 0.05% of the popullation have downloaded this app, if you do the math)

So then apply this figure to the population of where you do business. For example a city with 200,000 people in it such as Townsville or Cairns would mean that roughly 100 people are using this app.

Look in the same play stores for the Yellow app and the same mathematics as above gives a bigger number, but at 1% (Or 2,000 people in a city of 200,000 people, it's nothing to be proud of.)

Do you really want to spend money to only have the possibility to advertise to such a small number of people? Not to mention that in the app, all of your competitors are all right next to your ad.

And the other 198,000 people are all just using Google anyway. Which doesn't search within these apps.

While we officially reopened from the new year break back in January 8th, it's been such a whirlwind of new websites and Google projects that the whole month of January has just flown by.

We'd like to wish all of our clients the best for 2018 and we're looking forward to all of the new projects that will flow through our studio over the coming months.

Already for January we have designed and uploaded 8 new website design projects (as further below) and we're working through the booked projects for February & March with more coming in each week.

As they say in the game of Monopoly, the one who has the most property always wins. The same is true with your website footprint in search engines.

With so many options as to where your business can be promoted on the front page, and with limited spaces for each of these, having the most real estate on the front page of Google not only means better exposure for your business, but also less exposure for your competitors.

1. Google AdWords
These are the sponsored listings which appear first in searches. They appear at the top of the page and are marked with a green 'Ad' icon to differentiate them from the rest of the listings. These sponsored ads are a major part of our service repertoire and we manage campaigns for over 200 clients. Google AdWords is also known as Search Engine Marketing or (SEM)

2. Google Maps
After the ads there is usually a few map listings. These are essentially free after some verification as to the location of your business is performed. We can help with this and can prepare the required Google My Business account to commence the verification process.

3. Google Organic Listings
These make up the bulk of the search results and appear after the map listings and AdWords ads. Google organic listings are based on website merit to the search phrase. Our Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) services have been achieving top position results for our clients for years and are very effective at maintaining one of the limited organic positions.

By adopting our proven SEO & SEM services we can allocate the most amount of real estate on the front page of Google for your business. This helps your business with the obvious extra traffic it will bring to your website, as well as the credibility gained by having your business name and links to your website appearing multiple times on the first page.

Even better, there are a maximum of 3 sponsored ads at the very top of the page, usually only 3-5 map listings underneath that and then 10 organic listings. Each of these spaces we get your business occupying also means that it can't be occupied by a competitor.

Have an obligation free chat with one of our Account Directors to see how we can help your business achieve these results and get you the most property on the front page of Google searches.

Contact Tiffany on 0417 967 510 or Peter on 0417 619 786 to find out more.

It's been a very busy year and we have worked with clients on more than 125 new website design projects throughout the year along with many SEO & SEM Google marketing programs to help local businesses get the most out of their online advertising.

To wrap up the year, here are some parting words from members of the Allcorp team.

We wish everyone the best for the upcoming holiday season and look forward to working closely with everyone in 2018.

I’d like to thank everyone for their time spent with me this year and those that have warmly welcomed me into their business and home offices. It has been a full-on year with lots of positives and seeing everyone make the conversion to 4k UHD and implement new Google campaigns. It’s always reassuring seeing everyone understand the importance of their digital marketing and seeing all your efforts turn into fruition. I’ve enjoyed hearing all the great feedback and return you’ve made on your digital marketing investments.

At this time of year, as we enter the festive season, it can be a little overwhelming with Christmas upon us and the New Year, which approaches quicker every year. Don’t forget to enjoy this time of year, be festive and merry and enjoy your well-deserved breaks – you have all earnt it. Have fun with your families and I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas.

I look forward to seeing you all again in 2018!!

Happy New Year 😊

Hi to all our fellow cyber space travellers,

We survived the highs and not so lows of 2017 and we have all met and even exceeded the demands that this global network is putting on us…and that is really great news.

What ever your plans are for the coming holiday season I hope you find it an enjoyable, relaxing and a stress free experience. Entering 2018 you will appreciate that you can continue to elevate your business by incorporating all the benefits you will achieve when you embrace the services of Google and its business partner in the north, Allcorp.

Well it has been an interesting year with a server change thrown in to test friendships and sleep requirements. Happily it is now smooth sailing with a faster and more powerful server pumping out all those 4K pages and web apps.

I will be hovering around with the tool kit over the break and hoping to catch up on some sleep while the rest of the office parties.

Thank you all for your patience over the last 12 months and may we have smooth sailing for 2018!

Hey fellow travellers thanks for being on board with us.

Seize the days ahead…get some rest…have some fun…and always count those blessings…and don’t forget to take time to smell the roses or may I say the hibiscus!!

How fast did 2017 go! We produced so many great projects this year and have heard some excellent feedback from clients who have experienced stellar results.

I am fortunate to have overseen every single website design and Google marketing project we have produced in 2017 and there are some real standout examples of how small to medium businesses can achieve real results from modest budgets - It's all about spending money in the right places and, working closely with our Google team, we have seen excellent ROI for our clients.

While I will be away driving through Europe very soon I'm confident that 2018 will be a great year and we'll return from the break being the biggest driving force in professional website design and Google marketing services.