Google have started rolling out a new Google Analytics interface, the first complete overhaul of the systems visuals since the launch of the service.

First impressions are that it’s certainly different and is going to take some getting used to. We actually struggled to find a “keyword” report to start with! However, in a similar fashion to the new Adwords interface we suspect that perseverance will reward us with the discovery of exciting new features.

We’re going to spend some working our way round the new interface and will update you on any exciting new features we find.

London Housekeepers is a domestic staff agency specialising in recruiting experienced housekeepers, nanny housekeepers and cook housekeepers throughout London. London Housekeepers is operated by Massey’s Agency, the oldest domestic staff agency in the world, who originally started trading in 1845.

London Housekeepers was designed to be simplistic and informative with a clear a call-to-action at the top to encourage people to submit their vacancies.

To see the site in action, visit LondonHouseKeepers.co.uk

If you are trying to add a static block to the homepage, try following these steps:

1) Create your static block in the admin system:

cms > static block > add new block

Give your static block a Block Title, an Identifier and select the store view that you wish it to appear on.

Enable your static block and add some content.

This is an example of a static block:

Block title: testblock
Identifier: testblock
Store view: All store views
Status: Enabled
Content This is a test block

2) Save your block and go to CMS > Pages > Homepage

3a) If you want your block in the left column add the following code to Design > Layout Update XML

1

<reference name="left"> <block type="cms/block" name="testblock" after="-"> <action method="setBlockId"><block_id>testblock</block_id></action> </block> </reference>

3b) If you want your block in the center section, add the following code to Design > Layout Update XML

1

<reference name="content"> <block type="cms/block" name="testblock" after="-"> <action method="setBlockId"><block_id>testblock</block_id></action> </block> </reference>

3c) If you want your block in the right column, add the following code to Design > Layout Update XML

1

<reference name="right"> <block type="cms/block" name="testblock" after="-"> <action method="setBlockId"><block_id>testblock</block_id></action> </block> </reference>

4) Save your page and refresh your cache. Fingers crossed you should have a static block where you want it to be.

Note: If you do not want you block to appear after everything in that column change the after=”-” section of the code. e.g. after=”cart_sidebar” would display the new block below the cart before=”cart_sidebar” would display the new block above the cart

Dance Vybz is a dance school providing lessons for both adults and children in Northamptonshire, Bedford and Milton Keynes. Specialising in Street Dance, they frequently enter dance competitions throughout the UK and internationally. Recently all their crews qualified to represent England at the World Championships in Austria.

Dance Vybz approached Netpowered in the hope of transforming their old website into something “more professional, brighter and more informative.”

BEFORE

AFTER

It looks FAB! So fresh and new. I love it – Sam, Dance Vybz

The new site was built on WordPress, allowing Dance Vybz to regularly and easily update content, including various picture galleries.

To see the site in action, visit www.dancevybz.co.uk

Home Outlet Superstore is UK based company supplying quality furniture such as solid oak beds, coffee tables and more at affordable prices.  With 5 stores nationwide, Home Outlet Superstore were looking to launch their brand online in order to target a broader audience.

Home Outlet Superstore approached Netpowered with an intial catalog size of 250+ products.

Working closely with Home Outlet Superstore, NetPowered have now launched an e-commerce store with a fully bespoke design powered by the flexible, open-source  platform Magento.  Packed full of functionality, this platform will allow Home Outlet Superstore to scale the number of products on their site via an easy to use admin system.  The site has been optimised for speed and has been designed to be conversion friendly.

Netpowered are now working alongside Home Outlet Superstore to generate traffic to the site using a variety of techniques including Google Adwords advertising, Google Product Search and SEO.

To see the site in action visit homeoutletsuperstore.com

One thing we get asked a lot is how to speed up Magento. The answer to which is a combination of server and site tweaks, these tweaks if deployed correctly can considerably improve the speed of a Magento site. When you take into consideration the fact that a faster site typically equals more conversions its clear to see how important it is not to neglect this area.

One of the quickest ways to increase Magento site speed is to enable “expires headers“.

So here’s how its done:-

1) first you’ll need to confirm whether “mod_expires” has been enabled on your server. There are a number of Firebug plugin’s that will enable you to do this. Yahoo’s Yslow plugin and also Googles Page Speed tool.

2) Now FTP/SSH into the folder housing your Magento install and open the “htaccess” file, near the bottom of this file you’ll see something that looks the following:-

<IfModule mod_expires.c>

############################################

## Add default Expires header

## http://developer.yahoo.com/performance/rules.html#expires

#ExpiresDefault “access plus 1 year”

</IfModule>

############################################

..then uncomment the “ExpiresDefault” line as follows:-

<IfModule mod_expires.c>

############################################

## Add default Expires header

## http://developer.yahoo.com/performance/rules.html#expires

ExpiresDefault “access plus 1 year”

</IfModule>

############################################

However, this won’t work on it’s own as you also need to add another line of code to the Htaccess file that effectively switches on the expires headers functionality:-

<IfModule mod_expires.c>

############################################

## Add default Expires header

## http://developer.yahoo.com/performance/rules.html#expires

ExpiresActive on

ExpiresDefault “access plus 1 year”

</IfModule>

############################################

Google has now rolled out its merchant seller ratings feature to UK Adwords customers. This enables Adwords clients that have linked their Adwords account to their Google base merchant centre account to display seller ratings underneath their ads. We’ve already seen a few examples appearing such as:-

It certainly injects some colour into the top 3 listings. Whether you’re able to use this feature will of course depend on the quantity and quality of your ratings. You’ll need to have at least 30 reviews and average at least 4 stars so its clearly something that Google wants you to earn.

We’ll be performing some tests on this new feature in the coming weeks so be sure to check back for an update.

Whilst working on a Magento project recently we discovered that Magento was ignoring HTML tags in the category level description. The problem was found on Magento 1.4 and looks something like this.

The <strong> tags are meant to bold the text and not appear on the page.

The Fix

1. Open the view.phtml file, which can be found in: /app/design/frontend/YOURPACKAGE/YOURTHEME/template/catalog/category/
2. Locate the line: <?php echo $_helper->categoryAttribute($_category, $_category->getName(), ‘description’) ?>
3. Replace this line with <?php echo $_description ?>
4. Save and upload your file.
5. Refresh Your Cache

This fix makes the new category level description look like this:

You can now add html to your category descriptions without wondering why it’s not working!

Girls With Attitude are a key brand in the beauty industry offering an exciting range of on-the-go fashion and beauty products.

NetPowered have designed and developed a conversion friendly e-commerce store for Girls With Attitude to not only sell their products, but to also raise awareness of their brand. The site based on the popular e-commerce platform Magento, has been optimised for speed and NetPowered will be carrying out SEO over the months ahead.

So if your after a lucious pair of false eyelashes or perhaps some glamourous false nails take a look at their site!

The site can be found at www.girlswithattitude.co.uk

Have you ever found yourself in a situation where you wanted to display products from a certain category on your homepage? Well wonder no more, this blog post will show you how!

1) Identify the category ids of the categories that you want to display.

To do this:

Go to the admin system > catalog > manage categories and click on the category that you want.

The category id will appear at the top of the page like so:

The category id for the Furniture category in the demo install is ID 10. Make a note of all the category id’s you want to use as you will need the numbers later.

2) Open up the homepage in the admin:

cms > pages > homepage and click on the content tab.

3) Add the following code to display all products from your category:

[code]{{block type="catalog/product_list" column_count="4" category_id="10" template="catalog/product/list.phtml"}}[/code]

This code will display all the products from the ‘furniture’ category, as it has category_id=”10″
Simply change this id to the one you wrote down earlier. For multiple categories to display, just copy and paste the code as many times as you need it, ensuring you add the appropriate id.

Note: column_count=”4″ has been added as I am using a 2 column layout. Without this the column count will default to 3.

The finished result:

If you are after an experienced Magento designer or Magento developer feel free to contact us.