Page Rank update

Thought it was an April Fool, but noticed after some optimisation work that Google had re-cached the Callisti pages and the SEO website is now PR4. G'night...

The future of Scottish music

Sometimes a sweet fusion has to be shared...



This could be the way to unite the Scottish shortbread tin history niche with a more international music flavour and bring it in to the new decade.

Jimmy Shand vs 50 Cent indeed

Badger Surveys in Dumbartonshire

Stuart Spray Wildlife Consultancy is carrying out badger surveys in Dumbartonshire this weather. They are also concentrating bat surveys in Glasgow, and bat surveys in Perthshire.

This is in line with SEO Geo-targeting updates to the website content. Throughout the year the survey work will be carried out in different areas of the UK so the content and news needs to be updated to reflect this.

If we stick to this strategy we can measure how effective this is and how quick the response is with search engines and resulting traffic.

Planting potatoes

Using a different IP address, even on the same server, is a way of creating external links to a website. We thought we'd try this with planting potatoes - a way of siphoning off specific content into a mini-website and then linking back to a client's ecommerce site where relevant products can be bought.

Chitting potatoes - now there's a phrase I never thought I'd use.

Time Lapse

Currently doing a spot of work for Lobster Pictures, the Bristol-based time lapse experts. They have their own 'Lobster Pot' wireless time lapse cameras that are especially useful for construction site monitoring over time.

There is some excellent time lapse footage in their showreel. The timelapse journey by train reminds me of an old Cure video for 'Another Journey By Train' oddly enough.

There is a Lobster Picture channel on Vimeo which has a whole bunch of time lapse and video work - worth a cheeky look.

Script free opacity

I was fooling around with the Callisti Logo and decided to make all the green squares useful in some way. Rather that start using scripts and alternative images I was able to use CSS and some opacity styling courtesy of a good resource by Mandarin Design.

You'll see that each colour uses opacity when rolled over and the links are consistent in a colour coded way. It's very out of your face (as opposed to in your face) so might be too subtle unless a visitor moves or sweeps their pointer over the logo.

Some other content updates have been made, e.g. updating the privacy statement to keep in line with Google, and some content and meta tag updates to reflect the organic shift in services that we offer.

Holiday Cottages in Galloway

Another loverly self catering holiday cottage provider in Galloway joined the Callisti group recently and will enjoy a speedier and helpful website service that they weren't getting from their last provider.

The restored Victorian cottages on the Galloway estate feature enclosed gardens and stable courtyards. You can check availability online and use the booking enquiry system to contact the estate for a holiday in the South West of Scotland.

A domain transfer that could have taken minutes was stretched out over about 5 weeks as mysterious invoices suddenly appeared, confusing hosting charges were quoted, and a general poor response to support requests was noted. Not to worry - karma and all that...