Fifteen Years in Business - The Story of Website Sorted
Website Sorted • May 04, 2021

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Fifteen years in business, happy birthday to us! To celebrate this milestone our director Neil Kinnerly thought he would share the story of how the business started back in March 2006 and how it has developed to become Website Sorted.

How the Business Started

For fifteen years I was employed by Somerfield, the Food Retailer, as their Logistics Commercial Director. During 2005 my career took an unplanned change of direction as Somerfield were subject to a Venture Capital buyout. The business was sold off ‘piece by piece’ and I, along with 25,000 colleagues, was made redundant and for me this was the opportunity that I had been waiting for to create a business for myself!


I took six months off with my family but used the time wisely to review possible business opportunities. I considered a small parcel carrier, retail shop and a technology company, but very quickly came to the conclusion that the Internet was going to present the best business opportunity. These were early days for Google but it was already clear that businesses would need to have a strong search engine presence to survive!


On 6th March 2006 I registered my new business, The Best of Bristol Ltd – an online directory for ‘local businesses’. Over a period of five years the business directory grew to represent over 250 Bristol businesses, all of whom we knew personally, and it became clear that we could offer additional business opportunities for our customers by brokering introductions between them...

Seeking New Opportunities

On the 10th December 2009 we hosted the first ‘Best of Bristol Business Exhibition’ with 25 exhibitors – an opportunity for our clients to meet, network and do business! The format proved to be extremely popular with events held twice a year and by 2016 with 150 exhibitors, firmly established as Bristol’s largest business exhibition. With competition setting up rival events and the business diversifying into SEO and Website Design, we decided to call it a day and we ran our last business event on Tuesday 13th September 2016.


With a growing business portfolio and always looking for new business opportunities, the decision was made to offer website design & SEO services. This was an obvious progression to offer complimentary web services and Website Sorted was launched in September 2009 with our first client website going live on 22nd October 2009.

Video from our 2016 Business Exhibition

Fifteen Years Later...

Fifteen years in business and looking back over the years we have worked with over 1,800 businesses. Today we have a very diverse customer portfolio that includes small local businesses to national companies promoting their services across the UK. We design and build simple brochure websites through to very complex eCommerce solutions, and everything in between. We pride ourselves on the transparency of our offer, focused customer service and excellent customer communications. We offer clear and honest advice, we stay up to date with industry changes and we never try to ‘cheat’ the search engines. Our customers trust us and as a result, they are very happy to recommend our services.


I am proud to say that we have designed and built over 500 websites. With this number of projects, it is difficult to identify favourites because I think all our websites are great! That said a few recent examples stand out and I will be led by what our customers say and the success they achieve...

N3 Display Graphics

"Excellent interpretation of the brief, competitive costs and swift fulfilment. It has been a real pleasure working with the Website Sorted team. Highly recommended."


Nigel Peeck, Director

www.n3dislay.co.uk

Berwick Lodge

 "We LOVE the website!! Sarah has said more than once that she thinks it looks so slick. And the wedding enquiries have been flooding in so it must be doing a good job of selling the venue."


Jo Maggs, Wedding Sales & Marketing Manager

www.berwicklodge.co.uk

Fifteen Years in Business - The Story of Website

"I genuinely believe honesty and transparency are the keys to business longevity"

My son Jack joined the business 10 years ago and now runs our office in Wales. Between us, our overriding business ethos is to always put customer needs first. Yes we are in business to make a profit, but I genuinely believe honesty and transparency are the keys to business longevity.


Going forward we are planning further business growth by working with existing customers and raising our profile via our website and social media.


We are a focussed small family business and looking forward to the next 15 years.

Fifteen Years in Business - The Story of Website

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Making your website inclusive | a keyboard with a wheelchair ear and blind person buttons

Making Your Website Inclusive and Why ADA Compliance Matters

by Jack Kinnerly • 15 May, 2024
In the digital age, it is essential to ensure that your website is accessible to all users, including those with disabilities. This goes beyond mere compliance with regulations; it is about promoting equality and ensuring a seamless user experience for all. Let's delve into the significance of this issue and explore how our accessibility app can be of assistance. Why Accessibility Is Important Imagine attempting to access a website while facing difficulty seeing, listening to audio, or using a mouse. This is the everyday reality for numerous individuals with disabilities. Ensuring your website is accessible involves enhancing navigation, comprehension, and interaction for these users. It is crucial to provide equal opportunities for all individuals to engage with your content. Why It's Good for Business By ensuring the accessibility of your website, you're not only demonstrating ethical responsibility but also expanding your reach to a broader audience. Individuals with disabilities have purchasing power, similar to everyone else. Additionally, by optimising your site for ease of use by all, you enhance the experience for every visitor, leading to increased engagement, satisfied customers, and ultimately, greater business opportunities for you. Introducing UserWay: The Easy Way to Improve Accessibility UserWay is a versatile tool that enhances website usability for all users. Its functions include providing alternative text for images to ensure screen readers can interpret them accurately, simplifying navigation with keyboard-only access, and enabling users to personalise text size and colors. Additionally, it boasts functionalities designed to mitigate the risk of seizures for individuals with epilepsy. See our Accessibility App in Action Check out the video below to see how the UserWay App works and how it can improve the accessibility of your website. It's simple, easy to use, and can make a big difference for your visitors.
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What to Consider When Creating Your New Website

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by Jack Kinnerly • 06 Mar, 2024
When investing in a new website, or a redesign, there are several things you need to make sure your web developer includes to give your site the best chance of being found on the internet and for your visitors to engage with it in the desired way. This might be to purchase a product, make an enquiry or pick up the phone and call you. 1. Visually appealing and user-friendly design This is crucial for engaging visitors and encouraging them to explore your site further. You want your site to represent your business and your brand and give a great first impression to build on your reputation. 2. Seamless navigation for easy exploration You want to make sure you make it as simple as possible for your site visitors to find the information they are looking for, whilst enhancing their overall experience. 3. Efficient functionality and mobile friendly design Making sure your site has fast loading times and works on mobiles, tablets and desktops is key for retaining interest and maximising accessibility. It is especially important at a time when over 60% of users view websites on their phones so they want access to things quickly and efficiently. If your user has to work to make sense of the information, they will leave. If your site is slow, it will also affect its ranking on Google and the amount of enquiries that you receive. 4. Compelling and well-presented content Once your visitors are on your site, you want them to stay there because your content is informative and relevant and presented in a clear and engaging way to maintain their attention. A great design, a clean and appealing layout and the use of professional images/videos to the overall viewing experience is crucial to retain visitors. 5. Integration with social media platforms This is something that gets overlooked but is important as many businesses get traffic through their socials. Driving the traffic back to the site is key to for them to get even more information and getting in touch. 6. Implementation of search engine optimisation (SEO) strategies Launching a lovely new site online isn’t enough to get your site seen by your key audience. You need to make sure there is SEO work being done in the background so your site reaches the people you want to see it and your Google ranking high on the search engines. To learn more about SEO and what it means visit our previous blog here https://www.websitesorted.com/our-top-10-seo-tips-and-best-practice-for-2021 7. Ongoing support Making updates or changes to a new website can be overwhelming for some and can lead to mistakes. Ensuring you have an expert web partner to manage these changes or help you along the way can be the difference between your site being broken and unresponsive in the future. We hope you found this information useful but if you would like to find out more about our services or getting a quote for a new website, please get in touch with us to speak to a member of our team.
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