General 2 - Old City Web Services

Old City Web Services Launches New Website!

June 15, 2016 by anoadmin Leave a Comment

WE HAVE AN ANNOUNCEMENT !

We are very excited to show off our new website here at Old City Web Services! Everything has been updated from images for the website, the "About" section to our portfolio. Not only is it responsive on any device, but it's also easier to navigate through our site. So go explore our new site, and click on everything! See what Old City Web Services can do for your business!

We recognize we have to update our website, Is it time to update yours?
Contact Us Today to Get Started!

HELP FEED HUNGRY KIDS

October 1, 2015 by anoadmin Leave a Comment

Old City is dedicating the month of October to"Help Feed Hungry Kids" and is collecting food items for the Weekend Hunger Backpack Program distributed by Catholic Charities. Each week 200, yes 200, packs are assembled and delivered to Sebastian Middle School for children that are considered food insecure. This has increased by 125 from last year since 4th and 5th grades from Crookshank have been moved to Sebastian while construction is finished at their school.This may be the only food that a child eats all weekend. Other organizations help other schools in St. Johns County by doing the same as Catholic Charities does weekly.

You may be asking what food insecurity means - Food insecurity refers to the United States Department of Agriculture's (USDA) measure of lack of access, at times, to enough food for an active, healthy life for all household members. It also measures limited availability of nutritionally adequate food. Numerous studies conducted report food insecurity is associated with:

more stomachaches, headaches, colds, and hospitalizations
higher absenteeism
childhood obesity
poor school performance in older children
high rates of in-school behavioral problems
high levels of anxiety and depression
hyperactivity

According to recent 2015 Feeding America population data, an alarming 26,290 St. Johns County residents are identified as food insecure.

St. Johns - 26,290 residents, 9,400 are children identified as food insecure.

9,400 children in St. Johns County need our help, Now!

How: Pick up kid friendly snacks like juice boxes, pack of crackers, individual size breakfast cereal, fruit cups and granola bars, instant oatmeal packets, Vienna sausage, peanut butter to-go dippers and individually wrapped snacks.

We Can Shop For You: Simply make checks payable to Catholic Charities. In the memo section mark for Weekend Hunger Backpack Program.

Drop Off Locations:
Old City Web Services, Inc                                            Catholic Charities
2155 Old Moultrie Rd, Suite 109                                  3940 Lewis Speedway, Suite 2103
St. Augustine, FL 32086                                                St. Augustine, FL 32084

Call for Pick up: We will come and pick up food items and or checks, call us - 904-867-4112.
More Information: Call us - 904-867-4112

Our Goal: To deliver 5000 lbs of items to fill Catholic Charities shelves for the Weekend Hunger Backpack Program.

We challenge you to do your part by joining us in helping to fill a child's stomach and help fight absenteeism, behavioral problems, poor school performance, and health issues. Won't you help?

Old City Web Services Staff

Why You Shouldn’t Have a Website that Uses Flash

July 29, 2015 by anoadmin Leave a Comment

Websites using Adobe Flash often are visually appealing and artistically elegant, yet they end up causing many issues both for the website owner and for the website viewer. With the many options now available for building attractive websites today, Flash has proven to be outdated and a headache for all parties involved. Websites that have Flash have issues for multiple reasons:

Information embedded in Flash is often invisible to search engines - Search engines do their job by scanning content - text, tags, headings, titles - to appropriately rank sites for their keywords. Content embedded in Flash is difficult to recognize and makes it much harder for search engines to read. This leads to missed opportunities for ranking.
Lack of consistent cross platform support - Flash is only supported by certain browsers and operating systems and regularly needs updating to work properly. Today, if web viewers have to make an update or download something new just to view your website, they will go elsewhere and find the same information much more easily.
Some users disable Flash to avoid Flash based advertising - Do you know what this means? It means they are not only going to avoid seeing advertising, they are going to avoid seeing your website content. If they come to your site and all they see is blank space where you have Flash content, your site will look broken, incomplete, and unprofessional.

A web viewer might see something like this, instead of your content:

The content you put time and effort and money into doesn't work and asks the viewer to jump through hoops just to see it. Nobody is happy and you may lose customers because of it.

So...You've got a website that uses Flash - what can you do?

There are several strategies available for solving Flash problems on your website. Content can be changed to not use Flash, and Flash navigation can be remedied in a relatively short amount of time by Old City Web Services experts. Let us evaluate your site's specific issues and give you the best options for optimizing your site and making it much more user friendly for both you and the viewer.

What Does That Mean? Internet Terms Defined

May 27, 2015 by anoadmin Leave a Comment

You have your business that you know in and out. You understand everything there is to know about the services you offer and the products you stand by. You also know you need to market your business, and in today's world that means using the internet to reach customers. That is where we come in, but often you are left without knowing what WE are talking about. Here is a quick list of terms to help you understand more about what we do and how we use our expertise in this area to help your business.

Internet Terms You Need to Know:

URL: This is the address that a user types into the address bar to reach your website. Ex: http://www.oldcity.com

Browser: Examples are Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, and Safari. These are what platform you use to browse the internet and each is a little different, offering a unique experience for web visitors.

Landing Page: This is the page that a web user "lands" on when they arrive at your website. It's the place where you welcome a visitor to your website, share an overview of your business and provide your first impression to them about who and what you are as a company.

Content Management System: A content management system (CMS) is a back-end tool that allows publishing, editing and modifying content on a website. Using a CMS can make it easier to change the design of a site independent of the site's content or pages. A CMS doesn't require downloading software to your computer and can be used from anywhere with an internet connection, making it a user-friendly and streamlined way to manage your website.

Backlink: Links from other website pages to yours, used to increase a site's popularity with search engines and to get more people to visit your site. The quality of a backlink and its anchor text is factored into Google's algorithm when deciding how much importance to place on it and therefore where to place it in search engines.

Blog: a blog, short for weblog, is an online journal or diary and a very popular current method of sharing your thoughts with the world. It is also very popular as a marketing tool. An Example is http://oldcity.com/city-blog.php

Give us a call or email us today! Call us (904.829.2772) or e-mail us today!

E-Mail: 5 Tips You Need to Know

November 9, 2011 by anoadmin Leave a Comment

1. Customers prefer an email address at your domain.

You may have had your Yahoo, Hotmail or Bellsouth account for years, but when it comes to doing business online in 2011, customers prefer the professional touch of an email address at your domain. For example, if your website is bobswidgets.com, your professional email address should be something like owner@bobswidgets.com or talktous@bobswidgets.com.

2. You can still have your email forwarded to your old address.

As an Old City Web Services customer, you have the option to choose whether you check a separate inbox for your website email online or have it forwarded to another email account. If you’d prefer to save time and only have to check one inbox, let us know and we will forward your business email (like owner@bobswidgets.com) to your personal email account (bob@bellsouth.net). You can also have up to 10 business email addresses with each domain you host with OCWS.

3. When selecting an email account, don’t be afraid to get creative!

It’s common to see email addresses on the web like contact@bobswidgets.com or info@bobswidgets.com, but common isn’t always good. Those email addresses tend to get spammed more than others, so we advise injecting a little creativity into your email address. It will also make your address more memorable for your customers.

4. Send photos as attachments instead of pasting them into your email.

If you’re sharing pictures with someone over email, they will receive a higher quality image if you attach the file to your email instead of pasting the picture itself into the body of the email. In

WorldClient, it’s as easy as clicking on the paperclip button, choosing your file, and clicking the “Add as attachment” button! In Microsoft Outlook you can click the paperclip, select the file and press “Insert.”

5. Don’t forget about your junk mail!

While the filters on your email might catch a lot of spam and add it to your junk folder, it can also catch a few emails that are not junk. Make sure you check your junk mail folder once a week to see if there’s anything that was put in there by accident.

5 Tips for Protecting Yourself with Passwords

November 2, 2011 by anoadmin Leave a Comment

1. Don’t save passwords in smart phones and laptops.

Sure, it’s more convenient to save your passwords for certain websites on your mobile device so you don’t have to enter it every time. But imagine how easily you could lose your phone or laptop, either by accident or at the hands of a thief. Now you’ve given a stranger direct access to your personal accounts. Take the extra time to enter your password, you won’t regret it.

2. Change your passwords often.

Again, even though it’s not always convenient, you should change your passwords often. For personal data such as bank accounts, credit cards, etc. you should change your password every 60 days. For email, social media sites, etc. you should change your password every 90 days.

3. Write your passwords down and store them safely.

It can be easy to forget your passwords, especially when you change them often. Keep a current list of your passwords in a safe location at home just in case. You may also want to write down answers to security questions (some sites use them for added protection) in case you need to reset your password. Each time you update the list, shred the old one.

4. If you share it, change it.

If you have to share your password with someone to get assistance with your computer, make sure you change it after your computer is fixed. Even if it’s a friend or family member, it’s better to be safe and start fresh after someone has had access to password protected parts of your computer.

5. Where possible, use computer generated passwords.

It’s tempting to create passwords from pet names, birthdays, kids names and other important monikers and digits in your life. But sometimes those passwords can be easy to decode, making them unsafe. Instead, consider using a computer generated password. There are several websites available that can create a random group of letters and numbers for you–just make sure you write it down (as we said in #3) since they can be difficult to remember!

5 Tips for Protecting Your Computer

September 7, 2011 by anoadmin Leave a Comment

Avoid viruses and protect your identity with these helpful tips.

Every day when we check our email, surf the Internet or play an online game we are exposing our computers to potential dangers. To help keep your computer safe we have put together a quick list of protection tips:

1. Change your passwords: Most computer experts advise changing your password every 90 days and using computer generated passwords with a mix of letters and numbers instead of something you create yourself.

2. Don’t open suspicious emails: If you don’t know the sender, don’t open the email! If the subject line seems odd, even if it’s coming from a friend or relative, don’t open the email! Be especially wary of emails with attachments as they could be viruses that will be downloaded to your computer.

3. Get good virus protection software: A top notch virus protection system is a must and there are many to choose from. Just make sure that you understand what options are available and how they will affect your computer. Some programs have strict spam blockers and firewalls that can affect your email, software and web access. If you run into a problem, consult a professional for advice.

4. Update your operating system: Computer viruses are constantly evolving and finding new ways to break into your system. Keep your software up to date to stay protected against the latest viruses. This includes your operating system (Windows 95 and anything older should be updated) and your Internet browser (Internet Explorer 7 and anything older should be updated).

5. Back-up your data often: There are several affordable options on the market for backing up your data including external hard drives, flash drives and even online data storage. It’s always a good idea to have back-ups of your computer documents, photos and other items just in case!

Do you still have questions?

For technical support questions about your computer and computer software, we recommend The Computer Guys. This local shop has been offering computer services and advice since 1995 on site and at their location in St. Augustine Beach. You can contact them at (904) 471-6703 for residential questions or (904) 471-6746 if you have a small business question.

Corn mazes, weather updates and more!

August 25, 2011 by anoadmin Leave a Comment

As we approach the end of a busy summer for Old City Web Services and many of our clients, we decided to take a quick break from our regular weekly newsletters to talk about some of the exciting things that have been going on in the OCWS family lately.

Crown Weather Presents the St. Augustine Weather Page

From comprehensive charts and live radar to current conditions and detailed discussions, everything you need to know about St. Augustine’s atmosphereic conditions are now available on Crown Weather (a site designed, developed and hosted by Old City Web Services). Based out of Maine, meteorological guru Rob Lightbown is one of the most reliable forecasters on the web, so we are honored that he decided to give St. Augustine its own page on CrownWeather.com. Thanks Rob!

A new site and sponsor for Unity Outreach St. Augustine

We recently launched a new website for community group Unity Outreach, an organization dedicated to providing assistance to local breast cancer patients and survivors. The new site (http://unityoutreach.org) features online registration forms for each of Unity Outreach’s three annual events, including the Think Pink Motorcycle Ride this Oct. 1st, which Old City Web Services is helping to sponsor this year.

Sykes & Cooper Farms is preparing another aMAZEing fall

Throughout the month of October, Sykes & Cooper Farms will be running its second annual 9 acre corn maze, pumpkin patch and hayride in Elkton, Fla. OCWS created a new logo for Sykes & Cooper, plus we launched a new website (http://sycofarms.com) with information on all that the farm has to offer for guests, field trips and birthday parties.

OCWS Tip of the Month: Take precautions to protect your computer during storms

Whether it’s an afternoon thunderstorm or hurricane, we want you to know that there are steps you can take to protect your computer from lightning related power surges. Every computer at your business or in your home should be plugged in to a surge protector–just last week our office building was hit by a powerful bolt of lightning that damaged several computers in our building, but all of Old City Web Services’ equipment was safe thanks to our surge protectors. In really bad storms, it’s a good idea to completely unplug your computer and any other electrical equipment from the wall outlets to prevent damage. You should also back up your files on an external hard drive or CD.

A summer of big launches for Old City Web Services

July 18, 2011 by anoadmin Leave a Comment

St. Augustine, Fla. – The space shuttle Atlantis isn’t the only launch worth noting in Florida lately. Old City Web Services has been hard at work this summer creating a series of new custom websites for several Northeast Florida businesses and community organizations. Since May, this boutique graphic and web design company has launched six new websites with more still to come.

The summer began with the launch of SmarterMeds.com, the new home of a web-based business that pairs certified pharmacists with patients for one and one medication therapy management. Old City Web Services was actively involved in the creation of the new business’ brand from start to finish including a custom created logo. The company also sought help from OCWS in optimizing their website for better search engine results.

On the heels of launching SmarterMeds, Old City Web Services created two dynamic websites for St. Augustine restaurants Sunset Grille (http://sunsetgrillea1a.com) and The Corner Bar (http://thecornerbar.gypsycab.com). In addition to custom designed desktop websites with menus, interactive maps and more, OCWS also created separate, mobile friendly websites for both of these restaurants, making it easier for potential patrons to find them on the go.

Just in time for the 4^th of July holiday, OCWS launched its fourth website of the summer—this one for antique book and ephemera retailer Wolf’s Head Books (http://wolfsheadbooks.com). Locally owned and operated, Wolf’s Head Books has long been a favorite stop for visitors and locals alike. The new website includes a Featured Items section with an evolving list of special titles available at Wolf’s Head which will be updated using the website’s built-in content management system. Users can also browse much of the store’s collection through the ABAA link on the new website or find directions to browse the collection in person.

With a company history so intertwined with St. Augustine, it’s always important to Old City Web Services to give back to the community where possible, which is why the company recently helped local non-profit Unity Outreach launch a new website for their organization. Unity Outreach (http://unityoutreachstaug.org) is dedicated to providing financial, physical and emotional support to St. Johns County residents undergoing or recovering from breast cancer treatment. These services are provided thanks to the generous donations of local citizens, many of which are collected through the group’s annual Think Pink motorcycle ride. Interested participants can now register online for the Motorcycle Ride or one of Unity’s other annual events. Qualified candidates can also download an application for assistance online.

Most recently, OCWS launched a new website for Gateway Contracting, Inc., (http://gatewaycontractinginc.com) one of Northeast Florida’s most trusted commercial and industrial contracting companies. Based out of Jacksonville, Gateway operates throughout the southeast, specializing in commercial plumbing, industrial/mechanical piping and general construction work. The company’s new website features more details on the services offered as well as a sample of completed projects for some of the company’s top clients including the U.S. Navy.

It’s certainly been a busy summer for Old City Web Services, with no signs of a vacation anywhere in sight! Visit oldcitywebservices.com, follow us on Twitter or “like” us on Facebook to keep up with all the exciting things going on at OCWS and find out how our services can help your business boom this summer.

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Time to put on those gloves and weed your website.

May 5, 2011 by anoadmin Leave a Comment

With summer just around the corner, now is the time to clean up your website in preparation for a fruitful year. As technology grows and changes, some things that we once needed on our website become unnecessary and actually hold us back from a blossoming business.

We have put together a few suggestions for some of those “weeds” that we could help you remove from your website.

1. Copyright dates: Look down at the very bottom of your website—do you have a copyright clause written in the footer? Some clauses include dates and if yours is more than a year old, you should think about updating it or removing it all together. Simply stating that the website is a copyright of your business keeps the site timeless and keeps you from worrying about updating it every year. Otherwise, having that old date can make your website look…well…dated!

2. Hit counters: Back in at the start of the new millennium, designers used hit counters so that website owners could track the number of people visiting their website. Now we can use sophisticated tracking codes from Google Analytics to not only count the visitors to your website, but obtain crucial information about them to help you structure successful marketing and advertising campaigns for your business. Trade in that old hit counter for a free Google Analytics account, we can have it set up for you in less than 24 hours.

3. Auto-play Music: Once upon a time, it seemed like a great idea to use music to set the tone for your website. Visitors would arrive on your home page and immediately be greeted by a nice melody. But maybe after a few years, that music has started to get a little redundant. It can also be inconvenient for users who are surfing your website at work or on the go. Consider changing the music so it only plays when visitors press a button or we can just remove it all together.

4. Flash introductions: Although an introduction page with moving animation can add a lot of visual appeal to your website, it can also hurt you in terms of search engine optimization and usability. Search engines rate your website based on text, but text from within a video can’t be seen by search engine crawlers. Flash animation is also unsupported on a lot of mobile devices, meaning that you could lose traffic because people can’t see your website when they’re surfing on iPhones and iPads. Lastly, people who visit your website often can get frustrated with having to sit through the same introduction every time they try to access your site. Call us and we might be able to convert your introduction into a video that can be added to part of your website so people can still see it if they want to, but it won’t hurt your business.

Visit our blog to read more about why these “weeds” are hurting your website: https://oldcitywebservices.com/index.php/blog/

Need help getting started? We are a phone call away!

Old City Web Services can remove these pesky weeds from your website and help you spruce up your site in a few other ways, too. Give us a call today and we can get to work improving your business’ website.

– Old City Web Services