A new round of the Covid-19 Online Retail Scheme totalling €5 million has been made available for Irish businesses to improve their websites or improving their online retail offering. The funding amount is up to a maximum of €40,000.
The scheme is targeted primarily to businesses with a physical location as well as an existing online presence. The grant can also be used to implement a digital strategy.
The scheme has already helped many businesses across Ireland to enhance their online sales and could be a fantastic opportunity for your business to grow. The scheme opened for applications on 4th May 2021 and closes at 12pm on 25th May 2021.
Applying for the scheme is easy and more information can be found by clicking here.
Contact 2Cubed
At 2Cubed Web Design & Development, we can assist you with any of the needs above, helping you to build your online presence. We offer a number of services to help you grow your online presence. Check out our list of services here – https://2cubed.ie/services/
Contact us today for more information on the services we provide – Contact Us
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When choosing a website provider, there are many things to consider. For many people this will take them outside of their comfort zone and can be an entirely new experience and choosing a provider you can trust is essential to help ensure your web design project goes as smoothly as possible. Whether it’s website development, design or SEO, 2Cubed are here to assist you along the way!
1. Trust
When you choose 2Cubed, you can be confident that you can place your trust in us to help you along the way. We are here to offer guidance and assistance for any questions you may have along the way from project conception to completion. We are focused on helping you achieve your goals and vision.
2. Expertise
With many years of experience in the broad field of website design & development, we are perfectly placed to tailor and execute even the most complex of projects. We have many years experience dealing with web design & development in many industries, API Development, connecting complex systems and interfaces and much more. You can view our broad range of services here – 2Cubed Web Design Services. Our graphic design process allows you to tailor your approach and we are here to help along the way step by step. Your design will only reach programming once you are fully satisfied!
3. Transparency
When you sign up to commence a partnership with 2Cubed, we remain fully committed to be open and transparent along each phase of the project. When we create your project plan, we will ensure that the steps listed within your plan are fully transparent for both parties. This helps to keep the working relationship open and clear. If we feel like your expectations are unrealistic then we will challenge the reasoning behind this and come up with a solution as to not impede or restrict you moving forward.
4. Due Diligence, Process & Care
We aim to exercise caution and care when you approach us for a working partnership. Before commencing, it’s important that both parties are on the same page in terms of the scope of the project. Open and honest communication is at the forefront of our principles. Our carefully planned process is built on years of experience and serves as a valuable tool – https://2cubed.ie/our-process/. This is a core part of our business and one that helps you to fully understand the steps along the way in a simplified manner.
5. Fully Managed Service
At 2Cubed, we offer a wide range of services ensuring that you don’t need to worry about items such as:
Hosting
Backups
Security
Domain Management
Updates, ongoing maintenance and much more
By taking care of this, we make sure to take the stress and hassle of doing so away from you, allowing you to focus on your own business!
6. Training
When your new website is ready to go-live, we offer an option to have training on using the CMS; adding products, pages, posts and much more. This gives you the flexibility to allow your team members to keep the website up to date with the latest information. Whether it’s adding / editing product data or amending content on page to writing a blog, we will guide you through each and ensure you are comfortable using the new site.
7. Aftercare and Support
When your website is pushed live to the world, you can rest assured that you won’t be left in the lurch. We aim to support you fully in the weeks after the launch and moving forward beyond this. We provide Website Maintenance for hundreds of websites across Ireland and we offer a fully managed support system for each of these. This gives you the comfort that you can reach out with any questions or issues after go-live and will be fully supported.
At 2Cubed Web Design & Development, we can assist you with any of the needs above, helping you to build your online presence. We offer a number of services to help you grow your online presence. Check out our list of services here – https://2cubed.ie/services/
Contact us today for more information on the services we provide – Contact Us
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Financial assistance for businesses to build a presence and trade more online
Up to €2,500 available with just 50% of this coming from your business
Businesses that have already received an online trading voucher previously are eligible to apply for a second voucher
The LEO Trading Online Voucher scheme has been in place for a number of years and has offered thousands of businesses the funding to start or help with trading online. The good news is that the scheme is continuing on into 2021.
With Covid-19 hitting many businesses last year, the 2020 scheme was a fantastic way to build online platforms as many businesses looked to get an eCommerce element in place. The vouchers are worth up to €2,500 or up to 50% of the total (whichever is less).
In order to apply and be eligible for the scheme this year, you must:
– Be trading for at least six months
– Employ between 1 and 10 staff
– Attend a Trading Online Seminar with your Local Enterprise Office
Financial assistance for small businesses to expand and trade more online
Up to €2,500 available with just 10% of this coming from your business as co-funding
Businesses that have already received an online trading voucher previously are eligible to apply for a second voucher
The LEO Trading Online Voucher scheme has been in place for a number of years and has offered thousands of businesses the funding to start or help with trading online.
The scheme has been a great success and a vital access to much needed funding for many small businesses. Our previous post on this topic outlined exactly what was on offer in regards to this – https://2cubed.ie/2019/02/leo-trading-online-voucher/.
Due to the ongoing situation regarding Covid-19, the Local Enterprise office have expanded this scheme to help businesses who meet the criteria further. In order to qualify for the funding, you must:
Have a limited or no eCommerce presence at all
Have 10 or less employees
Have a turnover of less than €2 million
Must be trading for at least 6 months
In addition to this, 90% of the total amount is now available through this scheme. This means a new website or adding eCommerce to your website may only cost you €250. This is an excellent incentive particularly with footfall dropping to almost record lows. The funding can be used for areas such as IT consultation, development or upgrade of an eCommerce website, implementing a digital marketing strategy and much more.
This applies to applicants who apply between now and September 30th 2020.You can find out more here https://www.localenterprise.ie/Discover-Business-Supports/Trading-Online-Voucher-Scheme-/. If you are looking to apply for the scheme, please click here to find details for your local enterprise office – https://www.localenterprise.ie/Find-Your-Local-Enterprise-Office
Alternatively, you can download the application form HERE.
Contacting us
If you have any questions on this scheme, please reach out to us in the same channels as you normally would:
If you’re looking to build an online presence promoting your company or selling products, 2Cubed are on hand to help you along the way. Our team work to bring your ideas to life using the latest design and custom web design processes. We collaborate to develop a wide range of custom-built software for your company based on your requirements.
Website and software development is a constantly evolving industry. Things can change in a heartbeat. Keeping up to date with these processes, helps us to help our customers with the correct information and allows a flexible approach to your project. We have developed many custom and bespoke projects in a number of sectors and industries. Whether it’s an eCommerce payment integration, bespoke API development and more, we have the tools at our disposal to successfully complete your project.
On Brand Development
Keeping your company branding at the forefront of the development process, in most cases may involve a deal of custom development but allows a ‘build on brand’ approach to your online project allowing you to maximise exposure whilst increasing engagement.
Our expert team is on hand to assist with any questions you may have. Check out a full list of services and our website process here – https://2cubed.ie/services/
You can use our dedicated quotation form below or contact us with any questions you may have here.
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If you’ve been thinking of changing website design company recently, we have put together a list of requirements in order to make the transition an easy and stress free experience, whether you are looking to change website provider, change hosting company or just looking to have your website maintained.
What will I need?
Depending on the service you require, the list of items will differ. However, it’s always good practice to have, or at least know, where your website is hosted. In addition, where your domain name is registered and hosted, how your business emails are configured and knowing this information will save a huge amount of time when switching companies.
Once the above items have been resolved (we can help with all of this), we will take over and work behind the scenes to enable your new service in a prompt and professional manner. At this point, you can sit back and relax!
2Cubed Web Design & Development offer a wide range of services to help you with your online presence. Some of these services include:
Website Hosting
Domain Management
Website Maintenance
Website Monitoring
Security Monitoring
Fixing website hacks
Improving website speed and performance
Plugin updates
Dedicated support channel between 9am-10:30am every morning (support@2cubed.ie)
Our expert team is on hand to assist with any questions you may have. Check out a full list of services and our website process here – https://2cubed.ie/services/
You can use our dedicated quotation form below or contact us with any questions you may have here.
Please feel free to follow and interact with us on the following profiles.
At present, the UK is due to leave the European Union as of 31st October 2019. Even though the vote to leave Brexit was way back in June 2016, much uncertainty remains even at this late point in the process. Learning how to prepare your website for the implications of Brexit should be considered. Firstly, understanding how Brexit will affect your business as a whole is vital. We’ve found some useful articles to help fellow business owners here and here.
1. Trade
If you run an e-commerce site, purchase products from the UK or engage in any trade across the EU then you’ll likely suffer from higher prices, longer shipping and custom hold-ups and in turn hiked prices for your customers. It may be useful to contact UK suppliers and providers that you engage in to seek assurances. Back in January, Amazon, the largest marketplace in the UK noted that businesses trading on the platform should prepare in case of a no deal Brexit. This remains a real challenge but while there are many uncertainties, this may present a chance for Irish companies to promote buying Irish. If the expected skyrocketing of prices from the UK comes to fruition then there may be a huge potential to bring customers back shopping locally instead of using Amazon, Ebay and other online platforms.
2. Data Protection
Data protection has been heavily in the limelight in recent years. This is mainly due to the GDPR changes that came into place in May 2018. EU wide regulations were updated to protect user data processed by organisations and many businesses were forced to take action in order to meet these stricter guidelines. With the UK leaving the EU, this may require some further thought especially if you own or run a website and process data to or from the UK. If storing any of this data, using a newsletter service such as Mailchimp or taking payments from UK customers then you may need to consider reviewing and amending your existing processes and terms. You can read more on this on https://www.gov.ie/en/publication/bf5200-data-management/.
3. Currency
Since the Brexit vote was announced, pound sterling has been volatile to say the least. The conversion from € to £ has gone from £1.28 to £1.06 over this period and how it will continue remains unclear. As a website owner and especially if dealing with currency conversions, it’s vital to prepare for a worst case scenario. This PDF can help you prepare in detail.
4. Growth and Expansion
Growing your online business within the UK market again remains unclear but in order to protect your business, preparing for a worst case scenario is advised. Many companies may struggle just to stay afloat after a potentially hard Brexit so future plans to expand in another market will need to be examined in a realistic manner.
5. Website Security
As GDPR is now a vital area of many websites, a critical component on this is ensuring data stored and processed is fully secure. The implications of a data breach can be catastrophic for businesses. A secure website allows you peace of mind that data held is fully secure and allows you to focus on other key areas such as website sales. The storage of this data should be treated as a potential serious security issue. If you have any questions regarding the website hosting or data storage then please use our contact form to send a message – https://2cubed.ie/contact/
At 2Cubed Web Design & Development, we are on hand to assist you with any required changes to your website which may be impacted as a result of Brexit. In addition, we also offer a number of services to help you grow your online presence. Check out our list of services and our website process – https://2cubed.ie/services/
Contact us today for more information on the services we provide – Contact Us
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When you are deciding on a new website, it’s important to take into consideration a number of factors. As you can see on the graphic below, we’ve created a simple process to assist with this. This planning process is critical to ensure you have a clear picture in mind for a new website. Failing to cover these steps before a website is created can lead to items or processes to be overlooked and cause problems down the line.
At 2Cubed, we want to ensure you have a clear picture in mind when considering a new website and we can assist you fully with this process to ensure success.
What to consider?
Planning and building a new website is a complicated matter. Items can be overlooked and when a specification is not clear. A good starting point is to look at some websites you admire and list why you think so.
Design or Redesign?
Are you looking for a completely new design or a refresh of what you currently have?
Expectations
It’s crucial to consider your expectations when planning on a new website build. What is it that you are looking to achieve with the new site? Do you have any goals or ambitions for what you’re looking to achieve?
Information
What is your company all about? By documenting this, you can make it clear to your web design agency what you are all about and by using tag-lines, slogans, mottos etc to allow end users understand your ethos.
Budget
A new website is a huge investment and you’ll need to ensure you consider this carefully when developing a website specification. Defining a budget allows your agency to consider the expectations vs budget and help you plan accordingly.
Timeline / Deadline
Deadlines are a crucial are of the website specification. Setting a deadline firstly allows the entire project to be split into separate deliverables to keep all parties on the same page and to also ensure your expectations are met.
Functionality
Will your website users need to register? Are you selling products? At this point it’s beneficial to consider each and every element.
UI / UX
After you decide on budgets, timelines and functionality, how will this all transition into front end user interface and user experience? Many times, consideration of these factors is left aside and may become an issue in future as the website is out the to the world.
Further Information
Thinking about any extra information or off topic items considered outside the above ensures clarity when moving forward with your web design project.
At 2Cubed Web Design & Development, we are on hand to assist you with developing your website specification, helping you to understand in detail what’s involved in a new website project. We also offer a number of services to help you grow your online presence. Check out our list of services – https://2cubed.ie/services/
Contact us today for more information on the services we provide – Contact Us
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As structured data becomes more important, you are likely to see the term more and more. So what exactly does it mean? And what does it mean for your website? We’ll explain in more detail below.
Google and other search engines are always working hard to understand the content on your website. By implementing structured data, you can ensure you give the search engines clear and explicit information, allowing more accurate and descriptive search results for the end user.
By doing this, your website visitors may see more rich and interactive results on the search page.
Most of the major search engines combined to create a special project Schema.org. The Schema.org website gives more info on how this data is populated and show examples of these ‘schemas’ and how they should be used.
Why does this matter?
Structured Data is an important element of SEO nowadays. Any information you provide to Google in a clear and easy manner, means they gain a better understanding of who you are what your website is about and can only help to increase rankings.
At 2Cubed Web Design & Development, we can assist you with any of the needs above, allowing you to take advantage of structured data best practices. We offer a number of services to help you grow your online presence. Check out our list of services – https://2cubed.ie/services/
Contact us today for more information on the services we provide – Contact Us
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You may have noticed a new layout while searching Google recently on your mobile device. Around the end of May, Google released an updated visual layout for the mobile search results page. This refresh was released to introduce a more modern and user friendly layout. Google say “we’re unveiling a visual refresh of the mobile search results page to better guide you through the information available on the web.” This was referenced on the Google blog here.
The familiar green font on the ads has now been changed to a black label with a simple ‘Ad’ reference. See below for reference:
As you’ll see from the above image, what Google have implemented is an opportunity for companies online to introduce their branding to users on the web before even landing on your site. This is done by using the favicon image which is uploaded on most websites. You’ll generally see this small icon on your browser tab while searching from a desktop or laptop.
What does this mean for me?
In order to take advantage of this update, you’ll need to make sure your website has an active favicon set and specified. There are some rules behind this:
Your website and the favicon need to be crawlable to Google (meaning you need to ensure your site is fully accessible to Google’s Spider). This can be a complicated issue, but we can help you with this if required – Contact Us
The favicon should be similar to your overall branding on your website. This will allow users to identify and recognise your brand online with ease.
Google will resize your favicon to 16px x 16px. They recommend uploading your file in multiples of 48px square to ensure clarity. For example, 48×48 or 96×96 etc.
Any favicon that Google see to be inappropriate will be removed and replaced with a default icon image.
At 2Cubed Web Design & Development, we can assist you with any of the needs above, allowing you to take advantage of this latest Google update. We offer a number of services to help you grow your online presence. Check out our list of services – https://2cubed.ie/services/
Contact us today for more information on the services we provide – Contact Us
Please feel free to follow and interact with us on the following profiles.
This planning process is critical to ensure you have a clear picture in mind for a new website. Failing to cover these steps before a website is created can lead to items or processes to be overlooked and cause problems down the line.
