It can be difficult to know how to establish yourself on the World Wide Web. Harvey Stroud, founder of Voilà! Web Solutions, can guide you smoothly through the maze of technological buzzwords and get your business up and running on the Internet.
Voilà! Web Solutions, based in south-west France, designs and develops exclusive websites. “What I especially enjoy about my work is bringing people’s ideas to life in creative ways,” said Harvey. “The client is an integral part of the process and my designs are always tailored to meet their specific requirements, such as bespoke animations or visual effects. Communication is very important to ensure clients get an end product with which they are completely happy.”
Voilà! offers a range of services, from designing and setting up new websites to overhauling and modernising existing ones. It also provides a service where logos, business cards, brochures and advertisement inserts can be designed and produced to help the client create a strong business identity. A language translation service by native speakers is also available should international markets need to be reached and all Voilà! websites have multilingual capability from the outset.
To ensure a top performance from the website, clients are also advised on how to reach the elusive goal of ranking highly within Google, Bing, Yahoo! and other search engines (known as search engine optimisation or SEO) once the new site is online.
In addition, Harvey advises clients on how to best use social networking services, such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, so they can improve the promotion of their business and effectively network online. “It is astonishing to think that in south-west France alone there are now over a million Facebook users and 600 million world-wide, so it has become a significant marketplace,” said Harvey. “I can set these services up to tie in with the client’s brand and integrate them into their website, as well as giving useful instruction on how to maximise their impact.”
Harvey has long been passionate about computer programming, turning his hobby into a career that has spanned over 20 years in the video games industry. He has made games for platforms such as the early ZX Spectrum, Xbox, PlayStation and Nintendo Wii, as well as DS consoles. With the growth of the Internet Harvey looked at ways to further use this knowledge. “The humble web browser of yesterday has for so many now become a hub of daily interaction: shopping, banking, news and so on. Users today expect a sleek online experience which I can provide.” added Harvey.
Voilà! websites can integrate photo galleries, videos and interactive brochures that superbly present products and services. Blogs are built in which enable clients to further add product updates, service information or even amusing stories to keep visitors interested. E-commerce online shopping facilities are also available on request. For organisations with specific needs, Voilà! has the expertise to realise dynamic database-driven applications that use other web technologies, such as interactive Google maps, calendars, documents and charts, Flickr and YouTube. “If a client has something particular in mind then I am always happy to discuss its viability and the options available.” said Harvey.