Apr 29

Blessd - Clothing for hourglass figuresOur sister company has done it again with the increasing success of Blessd - clothing for the hourglass figure. Their business has been growing rapidly since Marketer took over the SEO at the site and they’re products are flying.


Feb 17

If you’re in business then you can’t help but notice the current economic climate. Well we have a client who aims to help those in business manage their finances smarter. With decades managing corporate, medium and small business finances the team at Cicero Finance Guides are well placed to give you up-to-date advice on business and financial management.


Jan 25

We’re organising a new seminar for February - watch this space!


Jan 16

Our partner Essential Marketer has recently taken on a new client by the name of Pink Connect. They have launched a hugely successful Phone Franchise Opportunity for the whole of the UK to distribute and service the millions of small business customers with telecomms and IT solutions.

Essential Marketer will be carrying out on-site SEO and link building in order to boost the presence of Pink Connect on the web.


Oct 15
Another great success has been achieved by one of our customers - Storwell Systems.  Storwell is a Redditch based industrial storage provider.  To demonstrate the ongoing rise of this sites success we’ll detail some statistics of when we took over the site.

  • Website Grader*: 51/100.
  • Page 1 on Google: 2 keywords.
  • Page 2 on Google: 0 keywords.

Not a good place to be for a site you want to profit from!  Using our technical know-how and the marketing brains at Essential Marketer we’ve managed to up our clients online presence to great levels and they will only get better!

  • Website Grader*: 82/100.
  • Page 1 on Google: 10 keywords.
  • Page 2 on Google: 11 keywords.

Containing over 200 pages of original and high quality content and a strong link campaign this site will go from strength to strength over the coming months.

This was only the beginning of our relationship and after completing the main site we launched an e-commerce platform allowing for the sale of Storwells products and services online.

* Website Grader is a website analysis tool provided for by an entirely independent US company.  Essential has no relationship with them but we strongly recommend using them as their insight into site SEO and their grading system is fantastic for quick summary reports on your site’s likely performance.


Sep 20

The latest marketing seminar run by our sister company Essential Marketer was a roaring success yesterday with over 20 visitors.  If you missed this one don’t fret as there will be another one on the 6th November.  If you’re interested in that then get in touch with Abi or John on : 0845 508 5008 to book your place.

If you attened the marketing seminar we all hope you enjoyed your time and learned something useful to take back to your businesses.  We mentioned some useful websites on a handout with a URL to some of the tools and areas covered on the day.  The URL for future reference is here:  Marketing Seminar Links.


Sep 9


1. Violating Convention

Designers who go against convention on the web are trying to ski up hill.  Its a no-go and Steve Krug’s book “Don’t Make Me Think” makes it pretty clear why.  Users have an internal model of how a site should be with a rough idea of what a navigation bar looks like, where it goes, how it flows.  Same goes for any other part of a site.

Have you ever noticed that shops, department stores and supermarkets will often put their “Branch Locator” in one of just a few places?  Convention!  There’s a time to follow it and a time to break from it.

2. Opening New Browser Windows

Everyone seems to be guilty of this and its an oldy but it sticks around because people won’t let go of the whole new browser window.  Remember: If a user wanted a new window they can get one.  @helping’ them out will often do no more than irritate.

3. What is It?

If a website can’t answer that simple question in less than a second it’s losing the battle.  People don’t consider a site for minutes or even seconds at a time.  Its less than a second and if the user needs to think - they’ll likely get irritaed and move on.  Make it clear what you’re about!

4. Ads

Unless its how your site operates then get rid of the ads - people rarely like being sold to and the more intrusive the ads are the worse off you’ll be.

5. Heavy Text

People don’t like reading on a monitor and so they’re unlikely to want to trawl through great tracts of your latest novella online.  If you need to write a lot then add images, break up text with sub-headings, etc.  Make it mor elike a magazine and people will be more inclined to read it.


Sep 3

Snom Registered VAREssential Systems have been avid users and suppliers of Snom products for over 6 years now and recently joined the ranks fo the Snom Value Added Reseller Program. As members it benifits our customers in two key areas. Firstly we get to pass savings onto you due to our reduced purchasing costs. Secondly we are committed to continued development of our Snom technical expertise and advancement so can bring the latest and greatest Snom has to offer straight to your company too.

Snom are a VoIP telephony manufacturer who produce wired and wireless handsets handsets as well as a range of accesories for call handling such as repeaters, headsets, etc.

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Aug 29
One thing we’ve noticed makes a huge difference to your sites success is the theory behind the “Golden Triangle”. Numerous experiments have been done where strange contraptions have been attached to people’s heads while they go about their usual business online. What these eye tracking devices have all consistently found is that people concentrate on the top left-hand corner (as can be seen in the photo) before moving on. It’s that ‘Golden Triangle’ of a persons focus that by far has the greatest impact on a person’s view of a site.

Even though this research has been public knowledge for some years now the same mistakes are still being made by web designers all over the world. By placing your most important content and expecially your call to actions at the top left you can easily see double, triple and quadruple jumps in your sales and leads online.

For more information on eye tracking check out Googles answers.


Aug 6

Business Link West Midlands Approved SupplierThis is great news for our future customers! Essential Systems have attained approved status and are now on the West Midlands Suppliers Register. What this means for you the customer is that if you go to the Business Link West Midlands and say you require a product or service to help your business grow they will fund half the cost of the project.

As approved suppliers we’re on the list of companies chosen by Business Link to help companies with their technical projects. Joining the supplier register required an approval process to ensure our company meets the required quality and legal guidelines set out for the register. In just 10 days Essential was approved and its a testement to the efficiency of the local Business Link service.

If you’re interested in a Business Link grant to help with your technical growth then get in touch.

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