February 2008

Meet your OPG Web Partners!

THE Pay As You Go websites available from EAN’s parent company the Oldroyd Publishing Group are proving extremely popular — and no wonder.

The sites with web partner support are available for as little as £30 a month — and it really is a true Pay As You Go service, with no further charges for maintenance or updating and offering the opportunity for unlimited pages and unlimited changes.

Darren Jones, manager of the Webteam at OPG.

A quality website can set an estate agent apart from their rivals — and the OPG sites, packed with more than 160 pages of quality content generated by EAN, are available to all kinds of agents — commercial as well as residential, covering lettings as well as sales, new starters, those businesses well estatablished and also solicitors.

And there to carry your site through to fruition and beyond are the OPG Webteam — the web partners who are there to help with all your queries and make sure your business is promoted in the best possible way.

Headed by Darren Jones, the seven-strong team at OPG’s head office are vastly experienced in website and internet matters.

They are solidly supported by an equally-experienced team of editorial writers, proof-readers and home-based web designers along with specialist input from several IT partners.

“Our department was set up about eight years ago and at the time we were a team of two, ” said Darren.

“The team is now seven strong in-house and we currently host and maintain websites for more than 1,200 satisfied customers throughout the UK and Ireland.”

OPG are proud of the fact that, as well as looking after hosting and maintenance, registration and renewal of domain names and search engine optimisation, they provide a dedicated and friendly web partner, contactable by phone or e-mail,to give support and advice on how to develop the site and maximise its return.

Here to help — Darren Jones (top left) with his OPG head office Webteam (from top, clockwise): Craig Pitt, David Pollard, Phil Johnson, Paul Dixon, Mike Hague and Scott Smith.

The OPG websites are produced using a range of design and web-design packages, including Dreamweaver, which is the industry standard software for producing websites, Photoshop and Flash.

Darren and his team also custom-write any ‘back-end’ scripting required to make sure the various functions, such as contact forms, work correctly.

Websites are vital in attracting instructions and the impression given by estate agent websites has become increasingly important.

“When making a website for a company, we know we are building their ‘shop window’ on the internet, so it’s important that proper care and attention goes into its creation,” said Darren.

“A website is a ‘graphical user interface’ (GUI) which has to look and function correctly at different screen resolutions, on different web browsers (e.g. Internet Explorer, Firefox etc) and on different operating systems (e.g. PC, Mac etc). For this reason, we fully test any site we produce across a range of platforms.”

The team behind the OPG Pay As You Go and Stop-When-You-Like websites are driven on by the fact that, under the terms of the agreement, if their clients are not happy, they can cancel at any time.

But their efforts are already earning glowing praise from all quarters for a job well done and the clients certainly aren’t going elsewhere.

“We can work with any existing branding and promotional materials to match the client’s current image or can offer fresh ideas if required,” said Darren.

“We also provide advice to clients on how best to promote their websites. It’s surprising how many businesses have websites but don’t take the often simple steps required to publicise them.

“Effective websites are attractive, and easy to navigate, giving visitors what they want with the minimum of fuss.

“One of our clients was so pleased with his site that he sent us gifts in appreciation!”

OPG’s Webteam also manage e-mail accounts, and Darren and his team are always happy to talk clients through setting up these e-mail accounts on their PCs, and resolve any technical issues which arise.

They always endeavour to answer technical queries either while the client is on the phone or by return e-mail, while any required amendments to sites are done as quickly as possible, usually within a matter of days.

A glowing example of just how helpful Darren and his team are came when one of OPG’s Pay As You Go clients had been struggling along with his e-mail facility.

“The agent’s numerous e-mail accounts had been set up in such a way that only one person in the office could use e-mail at any one time,” said Darren.

“In order to rectify this situation, we took remote control of the computers in question, with the client’s permission, and reconfigured their e-mail settings.

“They can all now use e-mail accounts provided through our Pay As You Go service simultaneously — and we solved an e-mail back-up query for good measure.”

That is just one illustration of how OPG’s Webteam can work for you — find out more about Pay As You Go websites by calling 0800 612 1408 or sending an e-mail to payasyougo@opg.co.uk.

Recent statistics have revealed that 80 per cent of prospective vendors form their first impression of an estate agent’s service from their website — and OPG are confident they can provide you with the best possible ‘shop window’ on the internet.

Their sites are ‘brochure sites’ with the actual property listings provided by a third party — but Darren and his team work closely with the agent and the property listings provider to make sure that your site offers your clients the best possible service.

The sites with web partner support are available for either £30 or £45 a month — with no up-front charges and no minimum term contract.

They come with a one monthly charge and the option to stop whenever you like, with full support , as detailed here, in developing and enhancing the site.

It really is too good an opportunity for agents to miss, as many — possibly your local rivals — are finding already!